Mud Volcano

Mud Volcano Latest News

A mud volcano suddenly erupted in Diglipur, Andaman Islands, recently.

About Mud Volcano

• It is a mound of mud heaved up through overlying sediments. 
• The craters are usually shallow and may intermittently erupt mud. 
• These eruptions continuously rebuild the cones, which are eroded relatively easily.
• Some mud volcanoes are created by hot-spring activity where large amounts of gas and small amounts of water react chemically with the surrounding rocks and form a boiling mud. 
  • Variations are the porridge pot (a basin of boiling mud that erodes chunks of the surrounding rock) and the paint pot (a basin of boiling mud that is tinted yellow, green, or blue by minerals from the surrounding rocks).
• Other mud volcanoes, entirely of a nonigneous origin, occur only in oil-field regions that are relatively young and have soft, unconsolidated formations. 
  • Under compactional stress, methane and related hydrocarbon gases mixed with mud force their way upward and burst through to the surface, spewing mud into a conelike shape. 
  • Because of the compactional stress and the depth from which the mixture comes, the mud is often hot and may have an accompanying steam cloud.
• Mud volcanoes, also known as “sedimentary volcanoes” or “gas-oil volcanoes,” are close cousins to magmatic volcanoes. 
  • Like magmatic volcanoes, they can erupt powerfully and hurl flames to great heights, sometimes even several hundred meters. 
  • Instead of hot lava, it spits out mud, water, and gases from deep inside the Earth. 
• Mud volcanoes also exist on the floor of the sea and can form islands and banks that alter the topography and shape of the coastline.
• Approximately 1,000 mud volcanoes have been identified on land and in shallow water.
• In India, the only mud volcano lies in Baratang Island, a part of the Andaman chain of islands.

Source: MC

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