Pakistan Earthquake Raises New Island

schwit1 writes with news that a recent 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Pakistan killed 45 people and caused a new island to form a few hundred meters off the country's coast. The island is roughly 35 meters long, and 7-14 meters high. "Seismologists suspect the island is a temporary formation resulting from a "mud volcano," a jet of mud, sand and water that gushed to the surface as the temblor churned and pressurized that slurry under the ocean floor." Long-time residents of the area say a similar island formed in 1968 after another earthquake, but disappeared a year later. "It is clear that 'the islands are not created because the ground was ... pushed up by the earthquake,' [said geophysicist Paul Earle], but more likely it was a secondary effect of shifting sediments. He also agrees the formation appears to have been caused by a mud volcano, but added that they don't need an earthquake to set them off. There are 'mud volcanoes in Yellowstone that have not been triggered by earthquakes,' he said."

Comments

wow,

[etash]

Benjamin Linus moved the island again.

PRC Will Claim the New Territory

[Anonymous Coward]

Because Pakistan has given in to the People's Republic of China (PRC) territory claims in the past, I am sure the PRC will claim this island as theirs!

Uh oh.

[RivenAleem]

Tensions are rising between Ankh-Morpork and Al Khali

Re:Priorities

[K. S. Kyosuke]

45 people died, but the news story is about a new not-island less than the size of a football field. Nice.

Big pile of mud -> Elbonia -> Dilbert -> Tech -> Stuff that matters. ;-)