So I’m out checking cattle today and smell sulfur. I start heading upwind and the horse looses it mind and I hear loud bubbling. I go on foot aways further and find this?
Pretty good size little volcano kinda deal gurgling up hot mud. Texas coast area. No pipelines or active wells for at least 1.5miles any direction.
I have 2 videos I took of it bubbling and gurgling and the ground all around it was like walking on a waterbed. The water is HOT. I don’t know how to post the videos.
Strange stuff I thought only happened in Yellowstone park.
Not the same thing But I have seen smaller ones in the west side of SLC Utah growing up. When my parents found out where we were going they forbid us to go back to that area of town.
As per my parents there was an old dump in that area many years before I was born. It caught on fire and they bulldozed it over trying to smother the fire.
And years latter it was still burning underground and was creating these smudge pot type smoking bubbling hot holes all over the area.
They would not let anyone build on that area and there was a trucking outfit that built right up to it. The truckers would toss their used pop bottles over the fence and us kids would go there and collect up the bottle for spendin money.
We heard of a kid falling into one of those holes and he got burned up pretty good.
We have lots of hot springs across southern Idaho, literally hundreds of them. Some are out in the lava fields, some are in the high mountains. Some are large enough to have been developed for spas, home heating, and geothermal power generation.
suggestion: look into filing a water right on it if no one else has done it. That hot water can be valuable.
You may want to get an actual geologist to check that out. It might be something as simple as an ancient hot spring coming back to life or the precursor to something bigger. A quick googlefoo and I didn't see any hot springs in that area of Texas so at first glance it looks like a anomaly, and that could be a problem. You might want to be careful carousing around that area as well and maybe temporarily fence it off to keep the cows out of there. That Sulphur smell can be associated with hydrogen sulfide which can be deadly in high enough concentrations.
I would get someone on the ground there pronto, and stay away from it! Could be many things, H2S may be volcanic but may be rotting organic matter, oxidizing sulphur etc.
Hard to tell without being there and also looking at local maps etc.
First there aren’t any volcanoes on the Texas coast as it’s a passive margin. What you are looking at is probably a surface seep and I would bet it’s associated with a fault that has broached the surface. Is there any evidence of oil associated with what is bubbling up?
I would avoid it in case there is H2S. Maybe find someone to test for it. H2S will travel downhill and settle in low spots. It will kill your ability to smell after breathing a little and kill you or anything else. I have heard of herds of cattle being killed in Mississippi from leaks at well sites.
There is a fault line that runs up and down the Texas coast.
There are several "fault" lines running through Texas. The Balcones Fault is the best known. IH35 out of Oklahoma down into San Antonio pretty much follows the Balcones Fault. There is another minor fault that comes out of the Wichita Mtns north of Wichita Falls (Ft Sill, OK) that follows US Hwy 81. We get what I call "fanny tickler" tremors quite often. Probably 2 or 3 times a year.
No oil that I can see this morning and no rainbow sheen on the surface. It’s bigger today and I now have a H2S monitor and have been asked to get a sample.
No oil that I can see this morning and no rainbow sheen on the surface. It’s bigger today and I now have a H2S monitor and have been asked to get a sample.
Use a long pole...that waterbed effect you mentioned in your OP is a clue!?
We have lots of hot springs across southern Idaho, literally hundreds of them. Some are out in the lava fields, some are in the high mountains. Some are large enough to have been developed for spas, home heating, and geothermal power generation.
suggestion: look into filing a water right on it if no one else has done it. That hot water can be valuable.
There was an incident in the Boise foothills near a hiking trail a few years ago. There was a little hot mud pot/spring which had been covered with some boards at some time in the past. It seems the boards had rotted away and some old gal out of Boise was walking her dog up the trail, and allowing it to wander freely. The dog fell into the hot water/mud and was fatally burned.
All hell broke loose on the local news for a week or two. Somebody has to be responsible for this! etc, etc.
And nobody dared tell the bitch that maybe it was her fault for letting her dog run free.
But anyway, if the mudpot mentioned was found on my property, I would consider building a tight fence around it. Trespasser proof!
Not a volcano developing. But like mentioned before could be a fissure from a fault line that breached the surface. If you’re sure it’s hot (boiling) water inside it could be associated with the fissure and a hot spring like activity could be forming. Something similar to what you may see at Yellowstone hot springs. If you are smelling sulfur, and especially if it’s strong, I would avoid the area. There could also be a release of carbon dioxide, which you know you can’t smell but can be deadly. Especially if you start to see any dead animals/critters in the area then you really want to avoid the area and get help. Good luck and it’ll be interesting to know what’s going on if you ever get it examined by someone.
Western Harris county. Yea where Houston is. I work on the last ranch (9600 acres) in Harris County near Katy. There’s 4 of these total now. The other 3 just bubbling hot stinking water, reaks of sulphur. One has bubbled enough to fill a DU wetland project that has been dry for at least 2 years. I got a sample of the boiling mud today. Wore a H2S monitor and it never showed any signs of it. Used a long pole and a cut Gatorade bottle tied on the end. It’s definitely getting bigger. And deeper
Found out the local gun range named Hot Wells once had a place long ago where people bathed in hot mineral water to cure their ails. It’s just weird this stuff just popped up.
Western Harris county. Yea where Houston is. I work on the last ranch (9600 acres) in Harris County near Katy. There’s 4 of these total now. The other 3 just bubbling hot stinking water, reaks of sulphur. One has bubbled enough to fill a DU wetland project that has been dry for at least 2 years. I got a sample of the boiling mud today. Wore a H2S monitor and it never showed any signs of it. Used a long pole and a cut Gatorade bottle tied on the end. It’s definitely getting bigger. And deeper
Found out the local gun range named Hot Wells once had a place long ago where people bathed in hot mineral water to cure their ails. It’s just weird this stuff just popped up.
The groundwater has likely dropped due to overpumping, drying up hot springs in the area.
HNIC: (Your monicker makes me laugh!) I say walk carefully around that spot/situation! Do you know how long its been there? I have spent a LOT of time in Yellowstone Park and in the "hotsprings" all around it but haven't seen that sort of thing. Thanks for sharing. Hold into the wind VarmintGuy
HNIC: (Your monicker makes me laugh!) I say walk carefully around that spot/situation! Do you know how long its been there? I have spent a LOT of time in Yellowstone Park and in the "hotsprings" all around it but haven't seen that sort of thing. Thanks for sharing. Hold into the wind VarmintGuy
From what I remember it looks like the "paint pots" but darker color.
I have been able to find zero information, images or videos of of anything like it coming out of Texas online.
Could be due to terminology used for Key words in my searches.
Maybe instead of 'mudpot' I should have used 'fracking mishaps'?
What Causes A Mudpot?
A Mudpot “or Mud Pool” is a sort of acidic hot spring, or fumarole, with limited water. It usually takes the form of a pool of bubbling mud. The acid and microorganisms decompose surrounding rock into clay and mud.
A mudpot is a natural double boiler!
Surface water collects in a shallow, impermeable (usually due to a lining of clay) depression that has no direct connection to an underground water flow. Thermal water beneath the depression causes steam to rise through the ground, heating the collected surface water. Hydrogen sulfide gas is usually present, giving mudpots their characteristic odor of rotten eggs. Some microorganisms use the hydrogen sulfide for energy. The microbes help convert the gas to sulfuric acid, which breaks down rock into clay. The result is a gooey mix through which gases gurgle and bubble.
The mud of a mudpot takes the form of a viscous, often bubbling, slurry. As the boiling mud is often squirted over the brims of the mudpot, a sort of mini-volcano of mud starts to build up, sometimes reaching heights of 3–5 feet. Although mudpots are often called “mud volcanoes”, true mud volcanoes are very different in nature. The mud of a mudpot is generally of white to greyish color, but is sometimes stained with reddish or pink spots from iron compounds. When the slurry is particularly colorful, the feature may be referred to as a paint pot.
Mudpots form in high-temperature geothermal areas where water is in short supply. The little water that is available rises to the surface at a spot where the soil is rich in volcanic ash, clay and other fine particulates. The thickness of the mud usually changes along with seasonal changes in the water table.
YT makes it a tad bit more complicated if a upload is less than 1 minute in length it automatically becomes a 'short' and isn't as easy to post here without some complications.
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