Jason Czapla is walking across a former lake bed in the middle of southern California. The ground simmers at our feet as little mud volcanoes disgorge piles of hot, sulfurous muck. The Salton Sea glitters in the distance, beckoning as the morning temperature approaches 106 degrees Fahrenheit.

Everything about this place, around a hundred miles from the Mexican border, feels like it’s about to combust. But for Czapla, a former petroleum engineer, there are few places he’d rather be.