Newly-formed island in Caspian Sea disappears within one year

Miami Herald reveals in its article that a mysterious "ghost" island that emerged in the Caspian Sea has mostly disappeared just over a year after its discovery. 

According to NASA's Earth Observatory, the landmass, initially observed by satellite on February 14, 2023, in the Caspian Sea, is thought to have emerged a month prior due to an eruption from the Kumani Bank mud volcano, the observatory reported in a news release.

The eruption remained unnoticed until the island was spotted 15 miles east of Azerbaijan, a country that shares borders with Iran, Armenia, Georgia, Türkiye, and Russia.

The island is estimated to have spanned 1,300 feet in width, which is slightly longer than four football fields at its peak.

A satellite image taken on December 25 reveals that the island has mostly disappeared, possibly before anyone had a chance to explore it. NASA pointed out that while it's unclear if the 2023 Kumani Bank eruption was fiery, previous eruptions from this and other nearby mud volcanoes have produced flames reaching several hundred meters into the sky.

The Caspian Sea spans 143,200 square miles between Europe and Asia, and the 300 "strange and fascinating" mud volcanoes in the area remain largely unexplored, according to Mark Tingay, a researcher at the University of Adelaide in Australia.

Mud volcanoes resemble traditional volcanoes, but instead of lava, they release a mixture of fluid and sediment. According to NASA, "Powerful eruptions of the Kumani Bank mud volcano have created similar temporary islands multiple times since its first recorded eruption in 1861." For example, a May 1861 eruption formed an island 87 meters (285 feet) wide and 3.5 meters (11.5 feet) high, which eroded by early 1862. The most significant eruption, in 1950, produced an island measuring 700 meters (2,300 feet) in diameter and 6 meters (20 feet) tall.

By Naila Huseynova