Caspian Sea's 400-Meter 'Ghost Island' Appears and Vanishes

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NASA satellites tracked a mysterious island that emerged and vanished in the Caspian Sea between 2023 and 2024.

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The Kumani Bank mud volcano created this 400-meter-wide landmass, located 25 kilometers off Azerbaijan's coast.

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Satellite images revealed the island's birth in February 2023, when it burst through the sea surface creating a sediment plume.

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The Kumani Bank volcano's first recorded eruption in 1861 created an 87-meter-wide island that lasted less than a year.

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The volcano's most powerful eruption in 1950 produced a massive island stretching 700 meters across and rising 6 meters high.

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Azerbaijan's eastern region hosts over 300 mud volcanoes within a convergence zone where Arabian and Eurasian tectonic plates collide.

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These mud volcanoes emit flammable gases like methane and can shoot flames hundreds of meters into the air during eruptions.

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Scientists think some muddy mounds in Mars' northern lowlands may have formed when gas and liquid-rich sediments spewed to the surface.

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Geologist Mark Tingay calls these mud volcanoes "weird and wonderful features that remain largely understudied.

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