Latest news with #mudvolcano
The Sun
5 days ago
- Science
- The Sun
‘World's smallest volcano' bubbling gases & sludge discovered by locals after bursting from the ground in Peru
A VOLCANO touted as the smallest in the world has been discovered - and it's shorter than a set of cricket stumps. Mysterious substances were found oozing out of the tiny geological formation in the city of Cusco, southern Peru. 6 6 6 6 A group of locals stumbled across a raised, blackened mound around 60cm tall in the Peruvian mountains. It looks like a small pimple in the earth's crust. It has a shallow conical shape - just like classic volcanoes - and a crater at the peak. Material has evidently been seeping from the top and down the sides, before solidifying to form a hard, dark casing. The whole structure stretches over just a few square metres. Locals reported that gases and other unknown substances were seeping from the mouth. The villagers promptly declared it the 'smallest volcano in the world". Wearing a traditional poncho, community leader, Arturo Mamani, dubbed it "The Eagle's Eye". Mamani and his family left traditional offerings of coca leaves at the base as a gesture of respect. The mountain town hit the headlines the following day, and a growing number of curious spectators visited to take a look. After learning of the extraordinary feature, the authorities cordoned off the area and called in the experts. Hernando Tavera, head of the Geophysical Institute of Peru (IGP), said The Eagle's Eye is not in fact a volcanic vent, but rather a small cone of earth, clay and water known as a mud volcano. He said it is a natural structure where mud, water, and dissolved gases emerge from lower levels of soil. It does not involve magma or any volcanic activity. Tavera explained: 'This type of phenomenon occurs when gases such as methane, carbon dioxide, and others make their way to the surface and carry clay sediments mixed with groundwater. 'The result is a mound with a central hole, a cone with a crater, which leads to it being considered a 'volcano' due to its shape. 'However, its origin, type of activity, and the materials it emits bear no relation to the active volcanoes found in the south of the country.' Although it does not pose a volcanic risk, Tavera warned that it could negatively impact the environment - with the potential to contamination of nearby water sources and crops. The IGP is continuing to monitor the mud volcano, also known as a mud dome, to determine if it poses any kind of risk to the local community. 6 6
Yahoo
05-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Watch mud volcano erupt beneath a crown of flames in Taiwan
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A mud volcano has roared to life in front of a temple in Taiwan, with mesmerizing videos capturing the moments mud shot out of the ground beneath a crown of fire. The Wandan mud volcano, located in the Wandan Township of southern Taiwan, spat bubbling mud out of four separate vents on Thursday (June 26) as ejected material reached a height of 6.6 feet (2 meters), Formosa Television (FTV) News reported. Footage from the roughly 10-hour-long eruption shows flames igniting above the bubbling mud. However, while mud volcanoes can ignite naturally, the Wandan flames were deliberately set by local people to burn off ejected methane, a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change, according to Reddit posts by Mark Tingay, an adjunct associate professor of geology and geophysics at the University of Adelaide in Australia. "Local folks ignite these vents by throwing burning rags into them," Tingay wrote in response to one Reddit user asking about the flames. "They do it mostly to flare off the gases, but partly because it looks awesome!" Related: Underwater robot in Siberia's Lake Baikal reveals hidden mud volcanoes — and an active fault Mud volcanoes usually don't have anything to do with regular volcanoes, which eject molten rock and hot gases. Some mud volcanoes are linked to hot geothermal activity, like those in Yellowstone National Park. However, Wandan's mud volcano is the more common type of this geological feature. "These mud volcanoes in Taiwan are driven by high fluid pressures that can form deep underground, rather than by magmatic influence," Tingay wrote in another Reddit comment. Tingay studies mud volcanoes and regularly shares information about eruptions on social media. In his latest posts, he described the Wandan event alongside a video taken by 張寶惠, the mud volcano temple's caretaker. 張寶惠 also shared videos on Facebook, showing the mud volcano violently erupting from different angles. The latest eruption began at around 5 a.m. local time and continued until around 3.40 p.m. This is the 10th time the Wandan mud volcano has erupted within the last three years, according to Tingay's posts. RELATED STORIES —Rare mud volcano explodes into towering inferno in Caspian Sea —Indonesia's Lewotobi Laki-laki volcano erupts twice in 2 days, unleashing 6-mile-high ash cloud —Hidden layer beneath Italy's Campi Flegrei caldera may explain why it's so restless Wandan's mud volcano isn't in a single fixed location, but can erupt over a 0.6-mile-wide (1 kilometer) area, according to Tingay. In previous years, the volcano has erupted underneath the temple, with mud shooting up the outside wall and flowing inside, covering the floor. Mud volcanoes vary in size and shape, and in some cases, form massive cone-like structures very similar in appearance to regular volcanoes. They can naturally produce flames when erupting rocks strike against each other, creating a spark that ignites ejected flammable gases. Researchers believe this is what produced a towering inferno above a mud volcano in the Caspian Sea in 2021, Live Science previously reported.
