Ground Temperature Reaches 812 Degrees in So Cal Town

Firefighters are monitoring a patch of land north of Fillmore where the ground climbed to 812 degrees on Friday for unknown reasons.

Full Article Here


Ok, all you ATSers, let's put our thinking caps on and figure this one out.

Here's a link to a map of the area. If you have Google Earth, you should be able to find the coordinates here as well.

map

I've heard before of underground fires, caused by peat, moss, coal


[edit on 5-8-2008 by buddhasystem]

How far are the tar pits form this? What temperature are they? I remember last month there was the same thing in yellowstone park. I am not sure the outcome of that either.

reply to post by network dude


The La Brea Tar Pits are in Los Angeles, probably about 40-45 miles southwest of this location. Not sure if there are any other known tar pits in So Cal...

is this the same incident?

www.abovetopsecret.com...

anyways, i suggested it could be seeping lava.

Here is another ATS thread re: high ground temperatures. This one was in Colorado and turned out to be relate to an underground coal fire I believe.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Wow!!! I'm in Southern California and haven't heard a peep about this. It's creepy. The first thing that comes to my mind is could there be any relation between these hot spots and earthquakes?

Jemison

The heat could be caused by magma, especially since the area in question is described as hilly. Glad to see that scientists have gotten involved in the investigation, although I couldn't find any info on this issue yet on the USGS website.

It's a relief that the area in question has already had the brush cleared by firefighters. After all, now that we are in the month of August, weather cooldowns probably won't occur for another 2 or even 3 months.

Thanks for the link.

It is sounding like the Tommy Lee Jones movie Volcano.
I dont have much more to add. I just wanted to follow this one. I am keen to see if anything comes of it.

I would guess the recent earthquake could have something to do with it. Maybe opened a vein for the magma to flow nearer the surface? Can you tell I am no geologist.....

There are two basic plausible explanations

(1) It's a hole, containing some form of combustible - oil, coal, natural gas, or chemically reacting substances, which are either combusting or reacting, for whatever reason.

(2) It's a really deep hole, going down to some kind of vent/magma something or other.

Given the recent earthquake, my bet is that the second option is more likely, something shifted a little, and is venting it's frustration.

I can't really think of any other option for underground heat that isn't extremely exotic - e.g underground alien base conducting secret experiments gone wrong.

Here is an update to this story with pictures and video. Interesting that this phenomenon has been occurring in the same area and has been a known issue since at least 1980!!! yes, I said 1980!!! Looks like this may be an underground oil fire...as this is in the big fat middle of an oil field.

www.latimes.com...

[edit on 6-8-2008 by no name needed]

Im kinda surprized that so many of you are pacified cause the L.A Times says it's an oil fire. really? that's it? that simple?

812degrees F..


sssuuuuuuuure... oil.

with all the movement and swarms around geothermal areas and dormant volcanoes, I really think that it's lava. I also think that we will see more and more of these places pop up.

just like the one in colorado, don't believe every thing you read.


add:


oh.. I think if someone could get a "whiff" of this thing, it would settle alot..
someone independent.

[edit on 6-8-2008 by pynner]

oh... wanted to mention 2 things..

why, if it indeed has been going on since the 80's, did no one know about it... then suddenly, oh yeah, no worries. we knew about it all along... but didn't.

and 2:

what if a lava tube opened up and started the oil/gas pocket on fire? hehehe..

reply to post by pynner


Did you watch the news clip at the link I provided? It stated that this has been a KNOWN issue since the 1980s. So this is nothing new...the MSM just decided to pick it up and run with it.

if there are thin wisps of smoke it is not lava. it is, in my estimation, either oil based or coal.

Written by a friend of mine in the oil business:

Time for a little oil bidness schooling.

Lesson One: Where there's oil, there's always natural gas - sometimes small amounts, sometimes large. How much gas there is in relation to how much oil (refered to as the Gas Oil Ratio or GOR) is one of the factors used in classifying a well as either an oil well or a gas well.

Lesson Two: What creates a "reservoir" is a geological event that forms a "trap" for oil, gas & water that's migrating. A formation folded into a dome would be one type of trap. Another would be where a geologic shift caused a fault line and lifted the block (of rock) on one side of the fault enough that a layer of porous rock was directly opposed by non-porous rock.

Lesson Three: Fluids and gases migrate through connecting holes in formations (called permeability), underground fissures/faults, or usually a combination of both. If the migration of those fluids/gases don't encounter a trap, it will eventually migrate to the surface. Mother Nature "spills" more fossil fuels that all the oil companies combined.

All that said: if the fissure/fault is large enough to allow the escape of natural gas to the surface, it's large enough for oxygen to seep down and replace the escaping gas. The only thing needed is an ignition source which could be something on the surface or something underground like heat from magma or a tiny spark created by a fissure shift involving a formation of chert.

I wonder if this is the same location of Los Padres National Forest where the hot spot in 2005 showed up. Here's the article from that time along with a video to the right:
Unexplained Hot Spot Heats Up Ground In SoCal