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It is entirely possible that what your Mother and you found was indeed petroleum. Just a few miles south of Los Gatos, near the top of the pass on Highway 17, is the well known "Moody Curve", where we hear so many traffic accidents occurring. Well back around 1880 that area was known as Moody Gulch and was the site of a famous California oil discovery.

While California is a major petroleum producing state, northern California has always been the poor step child when it comes to oil and gas discoveries and production. Nevertheless, there are deposits in the bay area that have been pumped as recently as the late 1940's. There was the Moody Gulch field that I mentioned, but also there is the Sargent oil field in Santa Clara Valley and the Halfmoon Bay oil fields in San Mateo County. I remember as a young Boy Scout camping south of Halfmoon Bay and finding the abandoned well head stubs still oozing and bubbling oil. Naturally occuring "tar balls" were always found on the local beaches.

After the Loma Prieta earthquake I observed in the mountains near Pescadero (east side of the San Andreas fault, about 8-10 miles from the ocean), new fissures and cracks created by the earthquake that were emitting so much natural gas that, for the sake of safety, the local residents has inserted pipes and had ignited the gas. The flames burned off the gas for months before quietly dying off.

Why not run some simple tests on that ooze you found? Petroleum is flammable, is your ooze flammable? Petroleum is lighter than water, does your ooze float? Petroleum is immiscible (it won't mix) with water, is your ooze immiscible? Petroleum on water will disperse into very thin layers that (in sunlight) will have a noticeable sheen or iridescence, does your ooze do this?

Let us know how your tests turn out.

Here are just a few of the many links referencing the Moody Gulch oil discovery, as well as other bay area oil fields...

Oil and Gas Production History in California (PDF)
Santa Clara Valley History, Part 15, Oilfields
The Story of Our Valley

Hope you find this information useful to you.

--Boot Hill

You may have an indication of a pending earthquake.

Bubbling crude, Texas tea, black gold.

Why not run some simple tests on that ooze you found? Petroleum is flammable, is your ooze flammable? Petroleum is lighter than water, does your ooze float? Petroleum is immiscible (it won't mix) with water, is your ooze immiscible? Petroleum on water will disperse into very thin layers that (in sunlight) will have a noticeable sheen or iridescence, does your ooze do this?

Also, it will dissolve in kerosene or gasoline or mineral spirits.