Western Railroad Discussion > Niland mud geyser on the move

This is the Google Maps aerial view of the mud geyser at Highway 111 and Gillespie Road northwest of Niland, CA. before the UP shoofly was built-  https://goo.gl/maps/57fjbEmqEFajhgQ37  Currently the mud geyser is between the tracks and Hwy. 111 and puts out quite a volume of liquid- see the 5-second video.  

Photo #1-looking southeast towards Niland Junction (5 miles away) the shoofly begins above the far end of the pool.  If the tracks continued without a shoofly, they'd go thru the backhoe.  The future shoofly for Hwy. 111 is above the car on the right side.

Photo #2- looking northwest to the Orocopia Mountains with the Chocolate Mountains on the right, you can see the shoofly bending away, interrupting what was a 7-mile straightaway.  Hwy. 111 and the Salton Sea is at the left. 

Look here to see photos and video from less than one year ago, when the mud geyser split the two main lines-  <https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,4798871,4798871#msg-4798871&gt;  

mapboy

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Does the water flow into the Salton Sea?

where is the origin of this water/mud geyser?

oh, and thanks for the images.............

66

mud geyser are all over the Imperial Valley and extends into Mexico.

Nilland area is on the nothrne end of the hot spots.

Has been for year, my folks who wored in the Valley in the 20 's  took fotos of them with a box camera

Ed

Interesting article on the highway reconstruction required with some railroad information LINK

"The mud pot, one of several thousand in the Imperial Valley region, has been in existence for about 70 years and has moved about 100 ft. per year. In 2016 there was a swarm of seismic events and it began to move faster. There is a deep vent, over one-half mi., that is venting gases and water through a perched groundwater table. Some believe it is moving along a fault line. A seismic event could accelerate the movement or shut it off. Experts are unable to predict the speed or movement of the mud pot."
 

It very definitely is tied to some fault line much like the Geysers area in NorCal, probably not as deep and seemingly with a decent water table.
That mud hole is maybe 30 miles from a major geothermal facility, one of several in the Imperial Valley. It'd be nothing if not for the location.

Out 

Mud pots have been a feature of the area for a very long time. Most are unremarkable as they are in the remote desert.

EsPee1229

callum_out Wrote:
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> ... That mud hole is maybe 30 miles from a major
> geothermal facility, one of several in the
> Imperial Valley. It'd be nothing if not for the
> location.
> Out 

5 miles down Davis Road (at Schrimpf Road) from the mud geyser is a geothermal plant and mud volcanoes.  There are 11 geothermal plants in the area, with a new one going in to produce power and lithium for batteries.

mapboy

mapboy Wrote:
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So is this just a summary of what happened previously i.e. UP built a shoofly when the mud-geyser moved last time or are you saying it's moving again?

exhaustED Wrote:
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> mapboy Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> So is this just a summary of what happened
> previously i.e. UP built a shoofly when the
> mud-geyser moved last time or are you saying it's
> moving again?

This is a report less than 1 year after the linked May, 2019, TO post, showing that the geyser has migrated enough that both mains are now on the northeast side of the geyser and that they have built a shoofly for Hwy. 111.  Railpax71 above says it's moving at ~100' per year.  Eventually I would expect the geyser will move on and UP will return to a 7-mile 70 MPH straightaway.

mapboy

Interesting.Thanks for sharing.Bill Webb 

EsPee1229 Wrote:
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> Mud pots have been a feature of the area for a
> very long time. Most are unremarkable as they are
> in the remote desert.
>
> EsPee1229

How deep does a mud pot get? Any fatalities? Are they like quicksand? 

brc600 Wrote:
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> How deep does a mud pot get? Any fatalities? Are
> they like quicksand? 

Some, like the mud pots on the south side of Lassen Volcanic NP, are quite hot and could burn you.  I didn't feel any heat from this one.  I didn't see any smoke from the mud volcanoes, but these are in a geothermal area producing power.

mapboy

Wow, that’s pretty crazy to see— neat!
The whole place is quite bizarre... The Salton Sea smelling to high heaven w/ dead fish everywhere; its deserted resort and other oddities including “Salvation Mountain” built on the site of Patton’s tank training ground in WWII.
Felt like one of the strangest dreams I ever had just visiting here — glad I did it in the early AM, too. No way would I want to be there in summer during the mid-late afternoon—hotter than the hinges in Hell for sure !