Book 12, Question 81
Why Do Mud Pots Plop?
A mud pot is a pool of thick, bubbling mud, and its bubbles pop with a plop! Steam and gases rise up through the ground and push through the sticky mud. Mud pots are scalding hot, so always stay on the boardwalk and watch from a safe distance.
More fun facts
- Mud pots bubble when gas escapes up through soggy ground.
- The gas rises through existing cracks and faults.
- A mud pot that builds up above the ground is called a mud volcano.
- In some places, mud pot mud is hot, heated by water, steam and gases from a deeper volcanic system.
- A mud pot in southern California bubbles from carbon dioxide, not hot water.
- That California mud pot has been slowly crawling across the land, even sneaking under steel walls driven 24 meters (80 feet) deep.
Sources: National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine, U.S. Geological Survey
Questions kids ask
Can a mud pot move?
One in California has been creeping across the ground, and scientists are not sure why.