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Salton Sea mud pots / mud volcanoes
A mudpot, mud pool or paint pot is a sort of hot spring or fumarole consisting of a pool of usually bubbling mud.
Mudpots form in high-temperature geothermal areas where water is in short supply. The little water that is available rises to the surface at a spot where the soil is rich in volcanic ash, clay and other fine particulates. The thickness of the mud usually changes along with seasonal changes in the water table.
The mud takes the form of a viscous, often bubbling, slurry. As the boiling mud is often squirted over the brims of the mudpot, a sort of mini-volcano of mud starts to build up, sometimes reaching heights of 3-5 feet. Although mudpots are often called "mud volcanoes", true mud volcanoes are very different in nature.
The mud is generally of white to greyish color, but is sometimes stained with reddish or pink spots from iron compounds. When the slurry is particularly colorful, the feature is then called a "paint pot".
East of the Salton Sea and west of Niland, California
During the 16th and 17th centuries, Jain religion was the prominent religion of Thar desert. Today, almost no Jains are left in Pakistan. Instead, now Thar desert in Pakistan has majority population of Hindus. Jains suffered major defeats during Muslim invasions from the West (mainly from Afghanistan and Central Asian states during early 17th century CE).
One of the things on our list for this trip was whale watching. We waited for a calm day and ventured out on a Pacific Whale Foundation trip out of Ma'alaea. It was a gorgeous day; the people that came in from an earlier cruise said they saw a bunch of whales and dolphins so we were excited. It was nice being out on the water but the whales must have been busy napping. We saw some but none up close. The guides said February and March are the peak months so we will take that into consideration for our next trip.
I took these photos in December 2015.
This is the same pod.
We are on Board Whale Song, a 52 food converted fishing boat cum kayak mothership heaven run by Rusty and Maggie. We met them in Hoonah as we de-stunkified our tent. They were bored and had no clients, so they encouraged us to "let" them motor us out to Elfin Cove.
This was a MAJOR departure from our plans to continue south down the inside. Rusty (and many other locals) swore up and down that the "outside" would be significantly more protected and calmer (less windy) than going down our proposed route.
As we traveled, we came across the pod. This is a still shot taken about 2 minutes before the pod turned around and came to take a look at us. They floated/swam within feet (single-digits) of the boat. We could smell their breath (fish dumpster in July) and see their eyes.
We all five wept.
Being in the presence of such massive creatures was the most magical, numenous-inducing experience I have had; before or since.
Nikon D700; AF Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 VR; post-processed with Adobe Lightroom 4 and Nik Software Silver Efex Pro 2.
The full eruption, from start to finish, or thereabouts. You can hear the Spanish-speaking guys sitting beside me making their own sound effects and comments throughout...
Okay, so maybe a cruise ship that snuck in overnight to preposition for the sunrise doesn't qualify as a pirate vessel. But you never know. There could be a pirate on board somewhere, ready to form up a raiding party.
Inner Passage, Alaska.
Orcas (Killer Whales) have blowholes, just like larger species. I saw many orcas on the Inner Passage but was not very successful in photographing them.
male nile hippo tucker @ san francisco zoo, more photos from this series @ gooberssfzoofriends.shutterfly.com/