Earth and Environment Atlas

How The Planet Works
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme
Geological Formations

Sand Boil

Structural and Tectonic Formations

Citation Formats

General Reference

APA Style

BibTeX

A sand boil, also called a sand volcano or sand blow, is a small cone of sand built up when water under pressure forces its way up through a bed of sand or dirt and ejects sand from a central point, so that the ground appears to boil. The cone slopes settle at the sand natural angle of repose and typically carry a crater at the summit, giving the feature, which ranges from millimeters to meters across, the look of a miniature volcano.

Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

View At A Past Year

The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.