Mud Volcanoes
A USGS-monitored point among the Mud Volcanoes east of Niland in Imperial County. The agency tracks it under site 331703115344001. Temperature shows as warm in qualitative terms only; no reading is on file. Who owns the ground and who may stand on it are both unrecorded.
A bit over a quarter mile from the road, which is unnamed, on ground a hundred and ninety feet below sea level. Rain is almost absent and snow is unheard of. The annual average runs warm. No land unit is attached to this point.
Check ownership first. The record says nothing about access. Nothing is listed for camping or fees, and no best months are given. Given the heat, winter is the workable season for a walk out to the mud.
Aircraft with laser scanners measured this ground to within inches. The scan strips out trees and buildings, leaving the bare shape of the land around Mud Volcanoes.
Drag the handle to compare the two views. The orange dot marks the spring, in a frame about three quarters of a mile wide.
- Setting
- Open ground
- Flat, open ground all around.
- Highest ground nearby
- 20 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the east
A slice through the ground from southwest to northeast, about 0.6 miles end to end.
Elevation data: USGS 3D Elevation Program. Aerial imagery: USGS The National Map. Public domain.
That's about twice the US average of 65. It's higher than at 84% of the springs on this site.
Heat flow measures the warmth working its way up through the ground from deep inside the earth. Where it runs high, rain and snowmelt that seep down through cracks in the rock come back up hot.
See every spring on the geothermal heat map →
Heat flow estimate: Stanford Thermal Earth Model (Aljubran & Horne, 2024), CC BY 4.0.
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Mud Volcanoes is road-accessible, so you can bring more gear. Bring sun protection for exposed soaking.
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