By Dean Murray
Satellites spotted a “ghost” Island – and then watched it vanish.
The landmass emerged from the Caspian Sea after a mud volcano erupted in early 2023. By the end of the following year, it had nearly eroded away, retreating from view “like an apparition,” said NASA Earth Observatory.
The OLI (Operational Land Imager) and OLI-2 on the Landsat 8 and 9 satellites captured images showing the island emerge and shrink about 25 km (15 miles) off the eastern coast of Azerbaijan.
Powerful eruptions of the Kumani Bank mud volcano – also known as Chigil-Deniz – have produced similar transient islands several times since its first recorded eruption in 1861.
This cycle was observed from November 2022, when the crest of the volcano remained below the sea surface. By February 14, 2023, an island had appeared, and a sediment plume drifted away from it.
Additional satellite observations suggest the island emerged between January 30 and February 4 and measured approximately 400 meters (1,300 feet) across, said University of Adelaide geologist Mark Tingay.
By the end of 2024, a greatly diminished portion of Kumani Bank was visible above the water.
Mud volcano eruptions can be hazardous, with the potential to expel large amounts of material—and even flames—over a short period of time. Azerbaijan’s mud volcanoes are linked to the South Caspian Basin’s vast hydrocarbon system and are known to emit flammable gases such as methane along with the characteristic muddy slurries.
It is uncertain if the 2023 Kumani Bank eruption was fiery, but past eruptions of this and other nearby mud volcanoes have sent towers of flame hundreds of meters into the air NASA Earth Observatory.
Mark Tingay said in a seminar for the Geological Society of Australia that mud volcanoes are “weird and wonderful features that remain largely understudied and little understood.”
