According to www.parks.ca.gov - The Salton Sea is… “One of the world's largest inland seas and lowest spots on earth at -227 below sea level, Salton Sea was re-created in 1905 when high spring flooding on the Colorado River crashed the canal gates leading into the developing Imperial Valley. For the next 18 months the entire volume of the Colorado River rushed downward into the Salton Trough. By the time engineers were finally able to stop the breaching water in 1907, the Salton Sea had been born at 45 miles long and 20 miles wide – equaling about 130 miles of shoreline!”
The Sea is also the birth-place of the seismic San Andreas Fault - which cuts through Bombay Beach, and first breaks the crust at Bat Cave Buttes…
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler
The Old Mud Pots are miniature active volcanoes of acidic water and clay, which lie adjacent to the Salton Sea in an active magma-dome field. A Geothermal Plant, Hudson Ranch Energy Services, is nestled behind them… Just west of the plant are The New Mud Pots which are growing, bubbling, and spitting up carbon dioxide!
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler
The Old Mud Pots
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler
The Old Mud Pots
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler
The Old Mud Pots and Hudson Ranch Services
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler
The Old Mud Pots
Film Photographs by Adam Chrysler
The Old Mud Pots
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler
The starving village of Niland flanks the Salton Sea and provides limited services for the eclectic residents of the avant-garde commune of Slab City…
Film Photograph by Adam chrysler
Niland
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler
Niland
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler
Niland
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler
Niland
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler
Niland
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler
Niland
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler
Parallel to Highway 111, and across the Sea are the haunting Bat Cave Buttes (off in the distance). This structure is the first breach of the crust of the San Andreas Fault, consisting of six small caves that are actually inhabited by bats!
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler