A puddle of gurgling mud crawls through southern California like a geological poltergeist
A puddle of gurgling mud crawls through southern California like a geological poltergeist
The bubbling mud, like the gurgling that is shown here, is threatening the infrastructure in California.
(Martin Rietze / Getty Images)A mysterious bubbling mud geyser is moving in Southern California, flirting dangerously close to train tracks, Highway 111 and some very expensive optical cables, like a geological poltergeist, according to news sources.
Even stranger, this disconcerting geyser, dubbed "Slow One," is in the same neighborhood as the source of the so-called "Big One," the giant earthquake that is expected to shake things up where the North American tectonic plates and the Pacific rub together to form the Failure of San Andreas.
But despite the unprecedented movement of Slow One in recent times, there is no evidence that this muddy geyser is an imminent precursor to an earthquake, said geophysicist Ken Hudnut of the United States Geological Survey. Los Angeles Times. In fact, the region has experienced less seismic activity in recent months than the average, he said.
The[[Gallery: Probing Geysers in Yellowstone and Chile]Researchers have known about Slow One, also called Niland Geyser, since 1953. It was formed when historic earthquakes caused deep underground cracks that allowed the gases to move up and escape to the surface, causing bubbles of bubbling mud, reported The Los Angeles Times. Unlike Yellowstone's Old Faithful, which has a molten rock that overheats the circulating spring water, the Niland geyser is heated with bubbling carbon dioxide and recorded at approximately 80 degrees Fahrenheit (nearly 27 degrees Celsius).
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After not moving for decades, the geyser caught scientists' attention when it began to move in recent years, David Lynch, a geophysicist, told the Los Angeles Times. Then, in the last six months, the geyser was on an erratic tourFirst it moved 60 feet (18 meters) for a few months and then a whopping 60 feet in a day, officials said in Imperial County, where the muddy spring is located.
The latest geyser movement is threatening the region's infrastructure, including a Union Pacific freight railroad going to Yuma, Arizona; an oil pipeline owned by the energy company Kinder Morgan; a line of fiber optic telecommunications lines owned by Verizon; and a section of Highway 111, which connects Interstate 10 with the California-Mexico border, the Los Angeles Times reported.
"It's a slow disaster," Alfredo Estrada's fire chief and emergency services coordinator Alfredo Estrada told the Los Angeles Times.
Up to this point, try to stop the geyser They have not worked For example, the officers tried to drain some of the water from the spring in motion. And Union Pacific built an underground wall of 100 feet (30 m) of rock and steel that extends more than 75 feet (23 m) deep as a measure to protect railroad tracks.
But Mother Nature simply shrugged. In October, bubbling mud slid under the wall, crawling even closer to the railroad. And the muddy spring shows no signs of desisting; In the last 10 years, the muddy spring, which smells like a rotten egg, has moved more than 240 feet (73 m) from its previous location. So far, the mud spring has sculpted a basin of approximately 24,000 square feet (2,230 square feet) that is approximately 18 feet deep and 75 feet wide (5 by 23 m), according to studies by Lynch and his colleagues.
Meanwhile, Union Pacific has taken precautions when building temporary runways in more stable earth and reduce the speed limit for trains in the area, said the Los Angeles Times. The California Department of Transportation said it will close part of Highway 111 if the mud gets too close for comfort.
For now, the spring is acting as a sink in motion, with mud about 40 feet (12 m) deep. As it moves through the mudstone of the region (a soft, sedimentary rock), it leaves behind a sunken path, much like the bright path behind a moving snail.
The public is advised to avoid this traveling and bubbling disorder. The toxic gases and lack of oxygen could suffocate any victim that falls within a few minutes, Lynch said. But carbon dioxide It dissipates a few feet away from spring, so scientists and other officials have stayed safe until now.
"It's kind of peculiar," said Lynch, who has been consulting with Union Pacific since May. "If there was not a railroad nearby, you would not even know it, this would be something out there that is chewing the desert."
Originally published in Living science.
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