The Active Volcano in California; Salton Buttes

[@thatcheesyjeffersonian2393]

What a crazy area the Salton Sea is. Toxic dust storms, volcanoes, fallout tier abandoned communities, and now an IMMENSE lithium deposit was found there. A commonly forgotten portion of California, but still an incredible experience.

[@christiangomez5855]

don't forget about the San Andreas Fault ending there too💁‍♂️💁‍♂️

[@wiredforstereo]

Don't forget that it was created by a mistake allowing the Colorado River to flow into that valley for two years. The Salton Sea is not even supposed to be there.

[@petuniasevan]

@@wiredforstereo Yep it was formerly called the Salton Sink. After it filled up with water, folks started moving to the area and pretty soon it got stocked with saltwater fish... but the evaporation raised the salt content and fish species began dying off. Most of the communities around the lake also died off (imagine the smell...) and the shorebirds that had been around the lake also began dying of disease, stress, and perhaps agricultural runoff issues. The fish species all died off due to the increased salt content in the now smaller Salton Sea, with the possible exception of tilapia and native pupfish. I grew up in SoCal and even in the 70s the lake was going bad. According to my late grandmother, it was the place to be in the 50s.

[@oscarmedina1303]

@@wiredforstereo That is the current lake. There have been several iterations of larger natural lakes. Look up Ancient Lake Cahuilla.

[@EraX52]

GH, you're on a role, releasing all the videos of the volcanoes of California. Keep up the great work!

[@Deltaflot1701]

My favorite feature of all that topography is the Niland Geyser, a mud pot that been moving steadily west, cutting roads, railroads and other infrastructure, despite whatever fixes the California government puts in it's way.

[@cmotherofpirl]

So in other words it is a fixed location, and the plate is moving over it.

[@kenduncan3221]

Except it is moving too fast for that, a real head scratcher!

[@johnperic6860]

@@cmotherofpirl No, the Niland Geyser moves about 20-120 feet per year, the plates only move a few inches per year. While plate tectonics might be involved, increasing the conditions that make it move, their relative movement to the geyser is negligible.

[@katherenewedic8076]

so no one uses the roads?

[@pauldietz1325]

The geothermal fields there have a fascinating mineral story. "Concentrated saline brine tapped by a deep well drilled for geothermal power near the Salton Sea, California, deposited metal-rich siliceous scale at the rate of 2 to 3 tons per month. The iron-rich opaline scale contains an average of 20% Cu and up to 6% Ag present in bornite, digenite, chalcopyrite, a new dense polymorph of chalcocite, stromeyerite, and native silver." (from "Sulfides associated with the Salton Sea geothermal brine", May 1, 1967, in the journal Economic Geology)

[@TheSpaceEnthusiast-vl6wx]

Thanks as always, Geology Hub!

[@AlbertaGeek]

Very interesting. Good content.

[@Sigil_Firebrand]

I remember going fishing there with my granddad when I was a kid, wish I could have gotten one more fishing trip there with him. Great video m8, thank you!

[@katherenewedic8076]

yes, my uncle had a boat and we vacationed there circa 1965

[@DJDouglasWarden]

Thank you Steven for supporting this great work!

[@kennyjones559]

I'm from California, but now live in central Arizona. I would like to see the Salton Buttes volcano 🌋 erupt so I could drive there and witness the event. It's only a 4 hr. drive from Phoenix, AZ.

[@oscarmedina1303]

The ash fall will reach your community,.

[@gregwilvert]

Fascinating video as always.

[@brianreddeman951]

South Western part of California-Arizona is pretty interesting in and of itself. Terrans going back to the Ediacarin period, geological recent lakes and lush vegitacian covered the area as recently as 15,000 years ago. Weird little volcanos. Etc

[@oscarmedina1303]

And lots of gold and peridot at the California / Arizona border.

[@kellycrooks4509]

Very cool. Thanks. I ve always been interested in 🌋

[@davidcranstone9044]

Excellent diagram at 2:03 - congratulations!

[@johnrottler4000]

Day 27 of requesting The Meers fault in Oklahoma and talk about other intraplate faults and how large earthquakes can hit away from plate boundaries Also this is an interesting volcano

[@rickhouston2144]

The football field for reference was brilliant

[@vrccim5930]

Thanks.

[@TheJohnmurphy516]

I would like to ask why it seems almost all west coast volcanoes haven't erupted in 2000-1000 years? Is it just a coincidence or is there some underlying cause that is keeping volcanic activity to a minimum?

[@boston_octopus_442]

Excellent question.

[@ms_khoff]

I also find this interesting. My guess is the current state and location of the subducted Farallon plate.

[@oscarmedina1303]

Volcanoes don't follow human schedules.

[@TheDanEdwards]

"why it seems almost all west coast volcanoes haven't erupted in 2000-1000 years? "

[@MrWombatty]

@@TheDanEdwards Mt St Helens wasn't very long ago!

[@peterdore2572]

Ge-NE-rating, yes! YES!!! Finally! ;P Just poking fun at your Genering pronounciation! Great Channel!

[@GroovyVideo2]

I camped in Danger zone for 2 weeks - had no clue on volcano - Thanks -

[@Nightscape_]

I never did get out to the Salton Sea when living in San Diego. It just looks so desolate and uninviting. I made sure to drive straight through So-Cal when driving out to Kentucky.

[@TheDanEdwards]

Also interesting are the geologically recent cinder cones in eastern Imperial County, about 30 miles southeast of the Salton Buttes.

[@TheDanEdwards]

You might mention the Ciero Prieto volcano just south of Mexicali, another strange side effect of the rift zone. Unfortunately the geothermal plant down there has caused problems with toxic runoff.

[@joeprince7775]

Have you covered the Sutter Buttes in the NorCal area? I would love to know more about that.

[@Dranzerk8908]

So is that water eventually going to dry up if it receded so much?

[@brianreddeman951]

Yes, eventually, it'll dry up.

[@ObsoleteEvil]

Unless sizeable mitigation is done eventually It'll dry up. The Salton Sea used to rely on water run off from irrigation farming using the Colorado river, but they've become more efficient at utilizing the water that none runs off into the lake anymore.

[@whiteknightcat]

I would point out that a 55MW plant is extremely tiny in the overall scope of things. A single modern gas turbine generating unit can produce almost ten times as much power, and it is not uncommon to pair them with a steam turbine to double the output to 1,000 MW.

[@SevereWeatherCenter]

Awesome video! Your last video on the Salton Buttes. First

[@stooartbabay]

You may want to change your pic for this video, the text is somewhat unfortunate when the video length digits cover some letters :)

[@Dragrath1]

The young age and small volume of the eruptive deposits here might be in part best explained by the fact that the Salton trough basin is actively subsiding and has high rates of sediment deposition from the surrounding topography as the core samples drilled from the hydrothermal vents contain older volcanic rocks. Not sure anything more about those old lava deposits beyond them existing in the otherwise dominantly sedimentary layers but it seems likely that anything less than a few thousand years old gets buried by sediments in the still subsiding basin. On that note much if not most of those sediments come from the Colorado river and thus the thick layers of sediment which underlie the region are quite siliceous all on their own so these seem a likely source for the crustal assimilation what with quartz sand being a dominant component of these sediments. On that note it is absurd that people live there at all the entire region is below sea level with the only thing keeping out the pacific ocean being the Colorado river delta damming the larger Salton trough, Gulf of California/Sea of Cortez system. This delta's highest elevation is only 12 meters above sea level and like any river delta it consists of loose unconsolidated sediments that retain their height only via sustained deposition a process which has been interrupted by human changes in hydrology. Couple that with anthropogenic global warming induced sea level rises and barring some drastic changes the ocean is going to at some point in the near to distant future overtop that delta rapidly flooding the basin as the waters wash away the delta sending ocean water inland up towards Palm springs.

[@bigrooster6893]

I definitely think it could have a VEI-4 eruption depending on where the eruption occurs.

[@jackmcmichael3560]

If the San Andreas fault goes off with the big one would that cause the volcano to go off here

[@oscarmedina1303]

It potentially could if the rupture is at the southern end.

[@digitaldreamer5481]

While still serving in the Marine Corps there, we had operation Gallant Eagle in which our objective was to set up an ambush at the combat town located on the shores of the Salton Sea. We were airdropped 15 miles off course (Air Force pilots, no love there)and had to hump all night to get there on time and it was freezing cold. There must have been a light rain the covered the sand and froze, that created this loud crunching sound as you marched on top of it and then your boots would drop 2”-5” into each step, a pretty good tripping hazard at times. However, we reached our objective with plenty of time but as we were waiting for the opposing forces to arrive, the sun started coming up and then all the flies started waking up. By 6:30am, the flies were so bad that we had to use the slings from our First Kits on our 782 belts to cover our faces as the amount of flies just continue to increase as each minutes passed. It wasn’t until the sun fully came up that we could see millions of dead fish that lined the banks of the Salton Sea. It had to be the worse fish die off ever and made for one of my worst experiences ever. It wasn’t until we got back to CamPen that Gen. Richard Day gave us a hot wash of this operation, that we learned about the volcanic nature of the fish die off and all the billions of flies that was attacking us. I just watched an YT video last year about all the people that live around the Salton Sea and how rundown it is there. The video was about how our Gov’t lost a live nuclear bomb in the Salton Sea during a live training exercise about 80 years ago and was never recovered. That the areas around the Salton Sea has high radiation levels to this very day. 🤔🤔🤔

[@mausercawley]

Oops?

[@WestOfEarth]

Fascinating area indeed. I remember watching a short documentary about the attempts to make the Salton Sea a wealthy resort area back in the day. We can see why that failed, lol.

[@brianreddeman951]

That is incorrect. No nuclear weapons were lost in the Salton Sea.

[@dlane5292]

How about doing a video on that volcano that popped up in some Mexican farmers field.

[@williamevans6522]

Combine a spreading center and transform fault= Salton Buttes

[@danoakes4071]

Any updates on Kilauea? Leading indicators predict an increasing potential for a major disturbance there within the next 30 days.

[@whiteknightcat]

Or on the Reykjanes volcano.

[@michaelpoland529]

What "leading indicators" would those be?

[@charlesrovira5707]

I wonder if the *Salton Buttes* are geologically related to the split that made the Sea of Cortés (Mar de Cortés.)

[@oscarmedina1303]

Yes. The land expansion (Basin and Range) is continuing to this day. Eventually the Sea of Cortez will reach Nevada.

[@TomLuTon]

Is the Salton sea large enough that it's formation had an impact on the volcanic complex by the weight of the water?

[@oscarmedina1303]

There is some evidence that the weight of Salton Sea triggers earthquakes along the southern branch of the San Andreas.

[@gregoryjenner8796]

I'm surprised this area is volcanically active. Usually places like this become extinct over time depending how old the volcano is and how old the rocks are usually if it hasn't erupted in a while. Since it's still active there's no doubt there's going to be another eruption in this area in the near future.

[@oscarmedina1303]

It's due to the transition from spreading ridge (East Pacific Rise) to strike slip fault (San Andreas). The ground is unstable and cracks. Water in the area lowers the melting point of the surrounding rock and creates magma at depth.

[@mariemelansongundy-vx4ox]

Not to forget the live bombing ranges just off the chocolate mountain range right next to it.

[@wiredforstereo]

Try "KEE-la-way-ah" The line over the "i" makes it sound like a long "e" voiced about 1.5x as long as a normal vowel. Not "kill," "keel".

[@paulettaann]

The audio in just about all of the geologyhub videos is computer generated. But if you leave a negative comment about it you will get shadow banned.

[@xwiick]

@@paulettaann This is not generated idiot. Tim is autistic and have explained a few times

[@oscarmedina1303]

@@paulettaann You are in error. That is his actual voice. View his videos from Iceland and you'll see that I am correct.

[@davidcranstone9044]

​@@paulettaannNo it is not, it is his real voice. People speak differently for all sorts of reasons, and it is the quality of what they have to say that matters, not any quirks in the way that they say it.

[@tomprovo6204]

@@oscarmedina1303 Iv'e listened to the Iceland videos. They are not even close to being the same, but whatever. You can like the CG audiio if you want to.

[@LizyDuskdragon]

Salt on butts

[@paulettaann]

The audio in just about all of the geologyhub videos is computer generated. But if you leave a negative comment about it you will get shadow banned.

[@brucekuehn4031]

@@paulettaann Not true. This guy is 100% humanoid.