The small town of Soda Springs, in southeastern
Idaho, is home to two unique incidental phenomena, which, though
unnaturally formed, resemble their natural counterparts to a remarkable
degree.
Several times an
hour, the Monsanto Chemical Company dumps red-hot, molten rock
down the edge of a dump mound, on its property north of downtown
Soda Springs. This attraction is a rare example of man-made molten
mountain building. The black hill of cooled slag has formed in
the ten years since Monsanto developed this method of slag disposal.
Twenty four hours
a day, seven days a week, specialized trucks back up to the edge
of the hill, and tip a 600 cubic foot pot of molten slag overboard.
The glowing, thousand degree centigrade liquid slides easily down
the slope, throwing heat that can be felt hundreds of yards distant.
As the liquid cools and solidifies, a crackling, rock-building
sound can be heard.
Monsanto's phosphate plant.
CLUI photo
The slag is composed of calcium silicate,
and is a byproduct of phosphate production at the vast Monsanto
phosphate plant. The plant, which consumes roughly as much electricity
as Kansas City, produces phosphates which are used in products
as varied as soft drinks, insecticides, fireworks, and truck bombs.
Captive geyser viewing platform
(upper left) and sign. When winds blow the arrow westward,
the geyser is not activated, as it tends to douse the parking
lot area. CLUI photo
Three miles south
of the slag pour, in downtown Soda Springs, "the world's only
captive geyser" spews jets of water 100 feet in the air every
hour, or every half hour during the tourist season. The geyser
was created in 1937 when a drilling operation accidentally hit
a deposit of pressurized gas and water, 300 feet underground.
After a few months of uncontrolled spewing, when the town was
close to being flooded, the well was finally capped by installing
a valve on the casing pipe.
View of geyser portal. The pipe in this
photograph actually contains the motor-driven shaft which
opens the valve to turn on the geyser. The geyser "blow-hole"
is a six-inch diameter pipe which emerges from the underground
next to the end of this pipe.
