QUICK FACTS
The place is it? Kumani Financial institution, Caspian Sea [39.5666672, 49.5898615]
What’s within the images? The emergence and fast disappearance of a volcanic “ghost island”
Which satellites took the images? Landsat 8 and Landsat 9
When had been the images taken? Nov. 18, 2022; Feb. 14, 2023; and Dec. 25, 2024
A putting collection of satellite tv for pc images exhibits the transient lifespan of a “ghost island” that emerged and rapidly disappeared within the Caspian Sea after an underwater mud volcano blew its prime.
The fleeting landmass emerged on the finish of January 2023 above Kumani Financial institution, an underwater volcano about 15 miles (24 kilometers) off the east coast of Azerbaijan. By the point it was absolutely shaped, on Feb. 4, the island measured round 1,300 toes (400 meters) throughout, in accordance with NASA’s Earth Observatory.
Nevertheless, the island was unstable, and by the point the final photograph was taken in December 2024, it had “almost eroded away, retreating from view like an apparition,” Earth Observatory representatives wrote. By now, the island has possible vanished.
Kumani Financial institution has erupted eight occasions because it was first found in 1861. Every outburst lasted only a few days, but all of those occasions resulted in no less than some type of short-term island. The strongest recorded eruption, which occurred in 1950, resulted in a 2,300-foot-wide (700 m) landmass that stood 20 toes (6 m) above sea stage.
Associated: See all one of the best photographs of Earth from area
Kumani Financial institution is a mud volcano, that means it spews a superheated slurry of mud and water as a substitute of lava and ash.
Azerbaijan has one of many highest concentrations of mud volcanoes anyplace on Earth, with greater than 300 muddy vents on the mainland or offshore. That is as a result of nation’s place above a “convergence zone” the place the Arabian and Eurasian tectonic plates collide, resulting in elevated geothermal exercise.
Mud volcanoes aren’t as violent or damaging as different volcanoes. Nevertheless, they do include excessive ranges of pressurized pure gasoline. This gasoline could be ignited by sparks from colliding rocks, resulting in sporadic fiery outbursts.
An underwater mud volcano close to Kumani Financial institution is believed to have triggered a towering inferno, a number of hundred toes tall, that exploded above the Caspian Sea in 2021.
Different volcanic “ghosts”
Regular, non-mud volcanoes can even create short-term islands once they erupt beneath the waves.
In 2015, a 0.7-square-mile (1.9 sq. kilometers) island emerged within the southern Pacific Ocean above the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano in Tonga. Nevertheless, it was worn out by the identical volcano in January 2022, when the underwater mountain unleashed one of many strongest volcanic eruptions ever recorded.
Researchers later revealed that the colossal explosion possible killed never-before-seen microbe species that developed on the remoted landmass.
In October 2023, a violent eruption off the coast of Japan’s Iwo Jima island additionally created a brief landmass, dubbed Niijima, or “New Island.” It grew to be round 330 toes (100 m) extensive and 66 toes (20 m) tall, and was clearly seen from area.
However in March 2024, drone footage revealed that the island had began to rapidly sink into the ocean, regardless of continued indicators of volcanic exercise, in accordance with Newsweek.
