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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."

2 of 88 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Meanwhile by Chrisq · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    There's a big difference between Palestine and Pakistan.

    A lot of similarities too, they are both sharia hell-holes where you can get murdered for not being a Muslim

  2. Re:Meanwhile by Chrisq · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    You're the guy who made the dubious rhetorical move of dubbing two entire nations "hell-holes".

    believe me they are