California’s slowest natural disaster is a wandering mud hole

Near the south end of the Salton Sea, California has a bubbling mud hole that appears to have looked at roads, rail lines, and pipelines and decided: those belong to me now.

The Niland Geyser is the kind of thing California does better than anyone: a geological oddity, a public works problem, a vaguely apocalyptic roadside attraction, and a metaphor with…