Yellow Stone Mud Pots and the mud.

Factual Questions
1

I was watching an old documentary about Yellow Stone National Park and they got to the natural hot springs, geysers and mud pots, all of which I think are absolutely fantastic, when I started thinking about something.

They showed a close up of some of the mud pots, which bubble up a thick, hot, creamy mud that looks just like slip. Slip is liquid clay ceramists use to pour into molds to make greenware, which is fired into bisque, then painted with a mixture of pulverized glass called glaze and fired again to produce the glassy, colorful pieces you buy in the form of cups, mugs, figurines and such.

Some slip changes colors when fired, from the universal gray to various shades of brown, red, green, blue-black and so on. Some starts out in colors and fires into paler shades of same, like the red clay used in Spanish roofing tiles, pottery, floor pavers and so on.

I was wondering, after being impressed with the natural mineral colors in the area of the hot springs, if anyone had taken some of the natural mud and fired it. If so, what colors did the bisque turn out?

2

My guess is if they caught you taking mud from the mudpots in Yellowstone Park you’d have plenty of time to think about what color it might turn out when fired while you’re sitting in the hoosegow.

Now if you were a legitimate researcher you might be able to get some samples for your research, but that’s another story.

I suppose you could enquire as to just what minerals are present in the mud (since an actual, real-life, legitimate researcher has probably made that determination) and find out what happens to those minerals when they are fired, but there is probably a lot of variation due to trace minerals that wouldn’t necessarily be listed.

Why don’t you write to Yellowstone Nat. Park and ask if this has been investigated? They might already have an answer for you.

FWIW, the ash from Mt. St. Helens comes out a pale gray when fired – the same color as the ash before firing.