Fountain Paint Pots, Yellowstone National Park

Mudpot in Lassen Volcanic National Park

Mudpot in Yellowstone

A mudpot, mud pool or paint pot is a sort of hot spring or fumarole consisting of a pool of usually bubbling mud. Lassen Volcanic National Park is a United States National Park in north eastern California. A hot spring is a spring that is produced by the emergence of geothermally heated Groundwater from the earth's crust.

Mudpots form in high-temperature geothermal areas where water is in short supply. In Geology, geothermal refers to heat sources within the planet 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. Plate tectonics and hotspots Divergent plate boundaries At the Clay is a naturally occurring material composed primarily of fine-grained Minerals which show plasticity through a variable range of Water content, and The thickness of the mud usually changes along with seasonal changes in the water table. The water table is the level at which the ground water pressure is equal to Atmospheric pressure.

The mud takes the form of a viscous, often bubbling, slurry. Viscosity is a measure of the resistance of a Fluid which is being deformed by either Shear stress or Extensional stress. 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. A foot (plural feet or foot; symbol or abbreviation ft or sometimes &prime – the prime symbol) is a non-SI unit Although mudpots are often called "mud volcanoes", true mud volcanoes are very different in nature. Note See the Volcano article for information on Magmatic volcanoes such as Mount St

The mud is generally of white to greyish color, but is sometimes stained with reddish or pink spots from iron compounds. Iron (ˈаɪɚn is a Chemical element with the symbol Fe (ferrum and Atomic number 26 When the slurry is particularly colorful, the feature is then called a "paint pot".

The geothermal areas of Yellowstone National Park contain several notable examples of both mudpots and paint pots, as do some areas of Iceland and New Zealand. The geothermal areas of Yellowstone include several Geyser basins in Yellowstone National Park as well as other geothermal features such as Hot Iceland, officially the Republic of Iceland ( ( Ísland or Lýðveldið Ísland ( New Zealand is an Island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses (the North Island and the South Island

Mudpot at Rincón de la Vieja Volcano National Park, Costa Rica

Short video of mud pool activity near Waiotapu, New Zealand