NASA Discovers Mysterious Temporary Island in the Caspian Sea! – Glass Almanac
The Caspian Sea, currently facing threats, has been in the news for a different reason: the emergence and subsequent disappearance of an island due to the activity of an underwater mud volcano. NASA, which reported this finding, confirmed that the island had eventually vanished.While the 29th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) was held in Baku, Azerbaijan, one significant omission from the discussions was the troubling shrinkage of the Caspian Sea. It’s worth noting that this largest inland body of water in the world has been receding at an average rate of twenty-three centimeters per year for the past two decades. Recently, however, another incident brought the Caspian Sea back into focus.A press release from the NASA Earth Observatory dated January 9, 2025, revealed that the American agency had discovered a mysterious island early in 2023, which had disappeared by the end of 2024. How is this possible? The formation of the island was the result of activity from Kumani Bank (or Chigil-Deniz), a volcano located about 25 kilometers east of the Azerbaijani coast.Active since 1861, Kumani Bank isn’t a typical volcano; it does not spew molten lava. Instead, it is a mud volcano, formed from pressure exerted on water-saturated sediments deep within the seabed. This pressure pushes the sediments to the surface, occasionally creating geological structures. Mud volcanoes, whose diameters range from a few meters to several kilometers, are mostly found in regions with active tectonics or high sedimentation rates.As NASA explains, the life cycle of the volcano’s latest period of activity was mapped using the Landsat 8 and 9 satellites. In November 2022, the volcano’s peak was still underwater, but between January 30 and February 4, 2023, the activity resulted in an island approximately 400 meters in diameter. However, this geological structure proved to be temporary, as its near-complete disappearance was observed by the end of 2024.It’s important to note that the Kumani Bank volcano is quite familiar with such phenomena. During its first eruption in 1861, an island with a diameter of 97 meters emerged only to vanish a year later. In 1950, the volcano experienced its most significant eruption, and an island with a diameter of 700 meters appeared. This formation’s highest point reached a height of six meters.
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