Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Mud Pots

On the South end of the Salton Sea is a fascinating natural phenomena locally called the mud pots. There are no signs to it and you've got to drive several miles on dirt roads to reach them but they are well worth the visit. A lady at the Salton Sea visitor's center told us about them.
In this area the hot mud and water boil up from under the earths crust to form these pots.
As you can see from the above photo mud is often thrown up in the air. A slightly sulfuric steam comes up from most of them also. There are several geothermal power plants in the area which you can see in the background here.
Here you can see water bubbling in the mud.
Here I catch mud shooting up out of one of the smaller holes in this pot.
Cheryl is testing the temperature of the water. Here it was just tepid. There are no restrictions to prevent anyone from wandering around in this area. You've just got to be willing to get a little mud on your shoes.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing all the info about the Salton Sea. It's interesting... Patti

McCullough Bridge

McCullough Bridge