A patch of land in Ventura County’s section of Los Padres National Forest where the ground recently heated up to 812 degrees continues to puzzle firefighters and geologists after weeks of monitoring. “It’s a thermal anomaly,” said Ron Oatman, spokesman for the Ventura County Fire Department. Firefighters responded to reports of a blaze there a month and a half ago, when observers noticed smoke rising from the parched scrub. But when they arrived, they found no flames. Firefighters and geologists who have surveyed the area in the Sespe Oil Field are uncertain what’s causing the heat, but they do have a theory. Allen King, a retired geologist with the U.S. Forest Service who went to the site Friday, said the smoking ground is “a normal occurrence” that does not appear to be the result of human activity.
The hot spot is in an area considered to be an active landslide that has shifted for more than 60 years. Several hundred feet below its cracked surface lie pockets of gas, tar and oil. King said he suspects cracks along the landslide’s slope allow oxygen to enter into the earth and hydrocarbon material to “seep out” of the fine-grain shale. The combination can create underground combustion, he said.
King said the depth at which hydrocarbon material can be found “varies tremendously” and that he does not know at what depth the combustion in the oil field is occurring. The 812-degree temperature was measured Friday about a foot below the surface, he said.
“It’s just a disaster waiting to happen . . . regardless of what the cause is,” he said.
Its bad enough having to contend with all the nutballs who start fires for kicks. The same phenomenon happened in Colorado Springs earlier this year.
Mammoth Mountain has a similar problem, but their’s is combined with CO2 which is deadly.
http://quake.usgs.gov/prepare/factsheets/CO2/index.html
Who’d have ever suspected that Hell on earth would be close to LA…
I am waiting for fusion and musTARD to tell us why this is President Bushs’ fault
Ventura County is getting is own Volcano, wooo!
Reminds me of a coal mine fire that had been burning since 1961… it still burns today! This fire could really become a bigger problem if it sustains it’s self.
Peter
Could be an opportunity to make a really useful lemonade with them lemons… Geothermal power plant anyone?
For my previous post: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2196
It’s boiling hot magma, or gophers with frickin’ laser beams on their heads.
I lived and worked in this area (as an archaeologist during the 70’s and 80’s and remember when a seam of oil shale was set on fire during a wild fire in the 80’s partially extinguished using liquid nitrogen where it crossed the highway. It’s also possible that this process much like a coal seam fire, will keep popping up much like one in the bluffs over the highway just north of Ventura which burned for at least 200 years.
‘active landslide’ heat from under ground friction & compression, any earthquakes nearby lately?
This is similar to the supercritical water they found in the Atlantic.
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/08/05/208224
I was expecting someone to mention the burning bush (in Genesis, not our noble leader).
O.K. I will do it.This is Bush’s fault because he is such a douche.
mysterious my butt..
sounds to me like the boys up in Alaska finally got the H.A.R.P. Array tuned nicely. now, if they could just find that pesky recurring bug in targeting computer..
-i’m sure tesla would slap them silly if he were alive.
-s
oh, and for all the “bush did it” fans and wannabees
havent you guys learned anything yet?
bush didn’t do it..why, its all those pesky Terrorists that wear Bin Laden masks..terrorist, yeah..that’s the ticket.
dont you know, terrorists are responsible for all unexplained phenomena..why they even sell pirated music, movies and kiddie porn to fund their dastardly plans. yessiry.
we’ll soon have to search every laptop on the face of the earth (let alone entering our borders) for such atrocities.. we cant let the CIA, er terrorist get the upper hand and destroy our um, god given freedoms..
terrorist, yeah, -thats the ticket..
-s
Space program showing its true face yet again.
#3, Paul,
I am waiting for fusion and musTARD to tell us why this is President Bushs’ fault
Bush won’t force the oil companies to drill on that site. If they drilled then there would be no fuel for the underground fire.
Happy now?
#12, bill,
That too.
#14, sound,
Sounds plausible to me.
Didn’t I see something like this in a Tommy Lee Jones movie!?!?! Glad I live on the East Caost.
Well just goes to show that there is a force more powerful than man, politics and Bill Gates.
It’s called Mother Nature and don’t f*** with her.
Just wait… I am sure there will relocate Guantonomo to there and make sure that the lawyer brass have some kind of “act of God” clause in the paperwork so they aren’t technically responsible for any deaths.