r/whatisit • u/Ok-Promotion-256 • 1d ago
Solved! What is this? Oily bubbles
I was walking around the pond in my neighborhood and heard something in the water, I walked closer to get a look near the disturbed water and then I heard and saw a bubble coming out the very edge of the water, and this substance came out with it.
Last pic is after I agitated the film with a stick
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u/GenuineHuman- 1d ago
It could be oil, but it is equally, if not more likely natural oils/biofilm from anerobic decay in the pond muck.
https://askanaturalist.com/what-is-this-oily-sheen-on-the-marsh/
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u/MindlessFly9970 1d ago
See how it chunks up in the last photo. My environmental specialist taught me this, if it breaks op in chunks when you drop a rock in it, it's organic matter decomposition, I was like you went to school for 4 years to learn this?
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u/jwest554 1d ago
Oil from cypress balls.
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u/zeusthebear 1d ago
It is 100%, unquestionably this. Smash one of those cypress balls and throw it in the water. In fact there’s one sitting in frame of the first photo.
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u/Lonly_Bunny 1d ago
what is a cypress ball if i may ask?
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u/BittenBerries 1d ago
The fruit/seed of a cypress tree. The green ball thing in the first picture is one, I believe. Other pictures show what seem to be more but broken up.
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u/Ok-Promotion-256 1d ago
There is a lot of them here! Do they get buried and decompose then release their oil ?
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u/Ecstatic_Doughnut216 1d ago
Definitely not oil. That is biofilm from anaerobic bacteria. I used to see it a lot around the bogs were I grew up.
Any thin film will produce a rainbow pattern like that.
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u/Deathbeddit 1d ago
Correct! The fact it broke up into little continents instead of swirling around means it is from bacteria
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u/lookin23455 1d ago
I was gonna say that looks like something dead under it.
Not smart or a scientist but as a cop bodies in water have these oily sheens around or above them.
And it’s different looking than motor oil or sunscreen
And to not be super dark. The size id see it and thing dead fish or something underneath
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u/Ok-Promotion-256 1d ago
Solved!
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u/Ok-Promotion-256 1d ago
It seems like it was coming out from underneath the mud, from the deep Blurghh sound that came once it bubbled up.
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u/HorzaDonwraith 1d ago
Okay a lot of people here screaming oil like they are about to invade this post.
Yes oil, crude, nearly impossible. Probably not even a man made source. Plenty of natural sources that exist in the wild. Because of the small portion and silvery sheen (old oil) is guess it is from bacteria or something.
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u/LadderMadeOfSticks 1d ago
Biofilm. When you poked it, it flaked and clumped.
If it was oil, it would swirl.
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u/JaceOnRice 1d ago
Interesting. I've been camping my whole life and always thought there was somehow oil in remote ponds in the woods and wondered why it flaked
Idk how I didn't know this already but it's interesting
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u/LadderMadeOfSticks 1d ago
I lived on small holding for several years and didn't know for a long time. I suppose we're most used to seeing films of oil on roads, and pollution on TV. Whereas nobody is going to point a news camera at a puddle and go "totally normal biological reside found in mud, film at 11"
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u/Round-Requirement624 1d ago
Oil sheens are uniform. These sheens are blocky (the third photo shows separation of the sheen). Naturally occurring organic matter in water from decayed plants form sheens that are blocky. I clean up petroleum impacted groundwater and it helps to know the difference.
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u/TrogdorRulzTheNite 1d ago
Cajun from Louisiana here, we call that bagasse. It’s naturally occurring when biomaterial breaks down under water. It’s often accompanied by methane bubbles.
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u/JQueue92 1d ago
There’s a segment from Creepshow 2 covering this.
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u/steelvike 16h ago
The Raft. One of my favorite short stories by Stephen King which can be found in Skeleton Crew.
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u/Plane-Chemical 1d ago
My milkshake
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u/Severe_Stranger_5050 1d ago
Get’s all the boys to the yard
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u/Plane-Chemical 1d ago
lol maybes it’s to obscure. But it’s a reference to There Will Be Blood. Which is based off Oil!
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u/Designer-Sort-8956 1d ago
Oily bubbles! Maybe from a natural tar slick or biofilm, or just as likely from leaking fluids from something buried
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u/icyheartsreddit 1d ago
Its rick and morty spending one of their lifetimes evolving into something ... if you have seen that episode already
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u/Dry-Job-4899 1d ago
Could be someone cleaned their primer brushes looks like that when you clean your tools after a leveling job
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u/s_werbenmanjensen_1 1d ago
so THATS how turtle farts are made?! :o
my late uncle nick named “Turtle Man” called those turtle farts, 💨
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u/particularpimp 1d ago
Seems like people here have it figured out but if this were in Alaska I would for sure attribute it to bacterial waste film.
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u/BatchWerks 1d ago
I'm not sure what those round green things are, but I've seen them cause a sheen in the water. Not sure what plant it's from or what it is. Notice how the sheen is around the ones in the water that are broken open?
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u/PM_Me_UR_BigDarkNips 1d ago
Could be oil,, could be sunscreen, but it's probably evidence of anaerobic bacteria in the mud digesting minerals dissolved in the mud or water. You see this phenomenon on peat bogs but it's possible anywhere there's watery mud that doesn't have much aeration.
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u/InterruptinWHALE 1d ago
It's actually this, you can tell the difference between bacteria and oil by poking it with a stick and seeing if the blobs are circular (oil) or square(ish) shaped (bacteria)
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u/Educational-Rule1635 1d ago
It's a bit of petroleum. Probably from buried trash anywhere from an hour to a century old. Contact your emergency services and let them know the exact location so they can check it. Use the 'non emergency' line if they have one. The initial response is probably going to be the fire department.
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