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| Bryce Neilson |
By Bryce Neilson
I hope you are all getting used to seeing white. That will be the predominate
color here for the next while. When I look out over the pristine white lake,
sometimes I see fly specks (ice fishermen) standing shuffling their feet,
sitting on a bucket or out of sight in a tent. If fishing is slow there isn't a
lot to talk about but sometimes the conversation turns to the "springs" in the
lake. They all watch out for them. There are some off the marina, the
Rockpile, RV point and the east side.
I remember years ago Eldon Robinson and I ventured out to
Popcorn springs off Fish Haven. It had been well known for years, about a half
mile off shore. When we got out there, there was a circle of open water about
25 feet across. Eldon decided to see how deep it was and ventured to the edge
with his depth finder only to promptly fall in. He got out but refused to go to
shore because the fishing was good.
The USGS did a study a some years ago on Bear Lake and one
of the things they were interested in was what kind of water was coming out of
the springs. We had mapped a lot of them so they sent divers down to collect
water samples. Much to our surprise, it was determined that they weren't
springs at all but methane gas seeps coming up from the faults on the lake
bottom. As the gas bubbled out at the bottom, the bubbles kept getting larger
due to reduced pressure as they reached the surface. This disturbed the water
column and brought warm water up, thus keeping a hole open.
Cisco Beach Vent
The gas vents along the east side, especially off First
Point, smell of rotten egg gas (hydrogen sulfide). The most prominent one close
to shore is just south of the Cisco Beach Boat ramp (picture). Now there are
springs in the lake, some identified when it was low but I guess the water is
not that different in temperature and have low dissolved gases. There are two
methane seeps in the marina and I know there is no water because when they
excavated the enlarged marina it was dry. The lake is always full of surprises
so just don't fall into a methane vent.
