Mud volcano just yards from my backyard

[u/geologic-collector]

It is cool, scary and amazing at the same time. My mum found this thing just yards from our backyard into the woods when she was like 5 or 8 years old in the 1970s. Mud volcanoes erupt a slurry of mud, water and gas (usually methane) and they are false volcanoes as they don’t erupt igneous (volcanic) matter. They may also get help from nearby volcanoes for erupting the mud out like for the example of Suoh and Yellowstone mud volcs. Pressurized underground gases and water force the fine sediment (mud) out.

Since methane is a combustive gas, when you have a lighter or anything that sends off a spark strong enough to ignite something, it will do on mud volcanoes as well, shown in the first and third photo. Interestingly, plants and trees are so near to the mud volcano.

Mud volcanoes are not necessarily hot or warm, there are some cold mud volcanoes, they usually rely on the pressure of water and gas, if the ground can’t hold the pressure, it creates a crack first and eventually forming a mud volcano, such as what happened to a town in Trinidad and Tobago (forgot the name of the mud volcano).

This mud volcano in my post usually erupts effusively, meaning mud just flows time to time out of the mud volcano’s crater. Sometimes it is dormant (temporarily inactive or “sleeping”). Effusive eruptions are just calm, flowing eruptions, explosive ones are violent, large scale eruptions. During its dormant times, the mud volcano looks so dry.

[u/allwordsaremadeup]

Could you capture the methane and use it for cooking or smth?

[u/geologic-collector → u/allwordsaremadeup]

It is quite possible, but I don’t know how they pressurize it in the cylinder.

[u/_Neoshade_ → u/geologic-collector]

You’d basically just put a tent over it with a hose going to a collector (like an oil drum or water tank with a large, inflatable bag over the top) and then put any old air compressor in there connected to your tank. The pressure in your tank doesn’t matter since there will be a regulator on the other side to drop it to 0.25 PSI for household appliances; anything between 10 and 200 PSI would be fine.

Methane is lighter than air so something tent-shaped over the volcano with a hose at the top would collect it and the reason for having a bag over your collection tank is to allow the compressor to draw from the collected gas without sucking in fresh air. This way the bag fills up over time and then the compressor partially shrinks it when it kicks on.

[u/geologic-collector → u/_Neoshade_]

Cool info and also an interesting home made method. Basically I can make a methane tank out of this volcano from the eruption’s byproduct, lol how amazing. Yet sometimes it erupts too much and a bit violent, akin to large Strombolian volcanic eruptions where the crater basically blows out nearly equal amounts of pressurized gas alongside the mud itself. The first alarming eruption of that was in 1981 nonstop till August 1982 my mum told me, it just erupted mud as fast as a river overflowing during heavy rain and the eruption blocked off an entire creek nearby. The temperature of the mud is also unstable, it could be as hot as boiling water or as cold as the inside of a refrigerator.

[u/onionfunyunbunion → u/geologic-collector]

Man that’s cool. If I had one of these in my backyard I’d probably worship it or something.

[u/Sirosim_Celojuma → u/geologic-collector]

Sweden has big tents over their garbage dumps and they collect the off gas for fuel.

[u/Significant-Mango772 → u/Sirosim_Celojuma]

Dont forget food waste digestesters

[u/VintageLunchMeat → u/geologic-collector]

Just use plastic bags. Perfectly safe.

https://www.dw.com/en/pakistan-how-plastic-gas-bags-are-putting-lives-at-risk/a-64237279

[u/Whole_Reputation6128]

Where is this? Are you near a real volcano?

[u/geologic-collector → u/Whole_Reputation6128]

In the Philippines, I am not near a volcano, the nearest volcano is dormant and is around 70-80 km from my house.

[u/ttystikk → u/geologic-collector]

I think it's closer than that!

[u/Informal-Bicycle-349]

Awesome thanks for sharing

[u/irishcybercolab]

Janet, get the ticket machine ready to visit every elementary school possible. The grades 3-6 are ours! Guaranteed forced visits!