Mud volcanism occupies a modest place among dangerous, and even more catastrophic phenomena. Its action is local and is not associated with any serious damage to the environment. Nevertheless, the study of this phenomenon in the context of natural hazards is of great interest, since the spatial distribution of mud volcanoes has a clear confinement to tectonically active areas, where they occupy a certain position (Fig. 2.5). The same areas are characterized by increased seismic hazard (Fig. 2.6). In addition, mud volcanoes are indicators of the potential oil and gas content of the territory, which serves as an incentive for a detailed study of the composition of gases and water, the indispensable components of hill breccia, as well as the conditions and mechanism for the formation of the eruption process itself. Mud volcanoes, being, in comparison with "real" igneous volcanoes, more superficial formations, make it possible to study the features of true volcanic eruptions.
Rice. 2.5. Areas of development of mud volcanoes associated with hydrocarbon
accumulations in deep layers:
1 - Northern Italy; 2 - the island of Sicily; 3 – Albania; 4 – Romania; 5 – Kerch and Taman Peninsulas;
6 – Eastern Georgia; 7 – southeastern subsidence of the Greater Caucasus; 8 – South Caspian;
9 – Southwestern Turkmenistan; 10 – Gorgan Plain (Iran); 11 – Makran coast
(Iran and Pakistan); 12 – Balochistan; 13 - Punjab province; 14 – Dzungaria (PRC);
15 – Assam region (India); 16 – Burma; 17 – Andaman and Nicobar Islands;
18 – South Sakhalin; 19 - about. Hokkaido; 20 - about. Taiwan; 21 - about. Sumatra; 22 - about. Java;
23 - about. Kalimantan; 24 - about. Sulawesi; 25 - about. Timor; 26 - about. New Guinea; 27 - New Zealand;
28 – Mexico; 29 – Ecuador; 30 – Colombia; 31 – Venezuela; 32 - about. Trinidad
In the global distribution of areas of development of mud volcanoes, their clear tectonic confinement is revealed. In all cases, the phenomena of mud volcanism occur in the frontal and intermountain troughs, near young orogens, in areas of relatively weakly dissected foothill relief, where thick (hundreds and thousands of meters) strata of predominantly clayey rocks have accumulated. This is usually a formation that is commonly referred to as the lower molasse.
The areas and areas of development of mud volcanism are confined to modern mobile belts - the Alpine-Himalayan and Pacific, although they appear here as separate discrete spots. Mud hills of the Kerch-Taman region have been known for a long time, where they are confined to the southern edge of the Indolo-Kuban trough and complicate the northwestern subsidence of the megaanticlinorium of the Greater Caucasus. Mud volcanoes on the southeastern subsidence are widely developed, occupying the Apsheron Peninsula, as well as the edge of the Kusaro-Divichinsky trough adjacent to the orogenic uplift; from the south of the orogenic uplift, they are located in the north of the Nizhne-Kura depression, in the Shemakhino-Gobustan region, and also to the west within the Sredne-Kura depression, in the interfluve of the Kura and Yori. Phenomena of mud volcanism continue in the Caspian waters, along the Apsheron-Krasnovodsk threshold, moving further east to Turkmenistan, and on the meridional elongated Baku archipelago, along the western border of the South Caspian depression.
The phenomena of mud volcanism have a wide, although uneven distribution over the space of modern mobile belts of the Earth. The vast majority of known mud volcanoes (more than 50%) are concentrated in the Caucasus region - in Azerbaijan and the Kerch-Taman region - in the South Caspian region.
Rice. 2.6. Scheme of the distribution of mud volcanism
and seismicity in the Caspian region:
1 – earthquake epicenters; 2 – boundaries of the seismically active zone;
3 – mud volcanoes; 4 – zone of manifestation of mud volcanism
Mud volcanoes are usually relatively small gently sloping hills, rising above the terrain by several meters - 2–3, but sometimes their height reaches 50–60 m. At the top there is a crater (one or several) from half a meter to 2–3 m in diameter. In some cases, a mud volcano does not form an elevation in the relief, but is a field of dried mud, which becomes unsteady and liquid as it approaches the vent - the griffin. In their superficial expression, mud hills exhibit a wide variety of species and are models of "real" igneous volcanoes.
According to the nature of the eruptions and the consistency of the ejected mud, "thick" and "liquid" hills are distinguished. The “dense” ones form a cone of varying height and their eruptions are characterized by a more or less regular periodicity, which can range from 2–3 to 6–8 years. During periods of dormancy, the hill breccia dries up and can plug the vent, but slight gassing through the cracks can continue. During the next eruption, the resulting plug breaks explosively, and the gas jet that escapes along with the liquefied mud sometimes ignites spontaneously. The turbulent stage of the eruption lasts several minutes, although a calmer outpouring of mud can last several days. In "liquid" hills, eruptions occur more calmly, like outpourings from an overflowing vessel. During periods of rest of such hills, a pulsating release of gas bubbles occurs in the crater. On the flat fields of the hill breccia one can also observe continuously pulsing gryphons. Such hills are always in an active state.
According to the composition of the products of the eruption, mud volcanoes show connections with oil and gas-oil deposits and can serve as indicators of the potential oil and gas content of the territory. In the composition of gases, methane plays a predominant role, while at the same time, a small amount of carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide is observed. Sopochnye waters are mainly chloride-hydrocarbonate-sodium and are close to typical oil waters. The fact that mud hills are common in oil and gas regions allows us to conclude that the similarity of oil and hill waters indicates their genetic relationship. Mud volcanoes have one important advantage compared to other oil and gas occurrences - this is their natural connection with diapiric folds, which are a favorable object for the formation of oil and gas deposits. Therefore, mud hills can serve not only as indicators of the oil content of an area, but also as a criterion for assessing its structural features that affect the distribution of oil content.
The solid component of the emissions of mud volcanoes is crushed particles of surrounding and underlying rocks, which, together with water and gases, form hilly mud, which subsequently turns into hilly breccia. Liquid mud contains a few percent of solid particles (4-6%), and solid - up to 40-50%. In addition to clay finely dispersed matter, knoll mud often contains a certain amount of larger fragments of crushed stone, usually corresponding in composition to harder and more brittle rocks of the most productive stratum, but sometimes also from the rocks covering this stratum.
The specific features of mud volcanoes are the frequency of action, a relatively calm state after a violent eruption, and the process of accumulating new energy. The evolution of a mud volcano after it has already formed and there is a weakened zone of its channel for the ejection of volcanic products can be determined both by tectonic causes - uneven pressure, and by hydrodynamics that governs fluid regimes. The conditions for the periodic operation of mud volcanoes are quite similar to the conditions for the operation of geysers. All areas of development of mud volcanism are located in seismically active zones of various potential hazards.
Various physical properties of the environment where the foci of mud volcanoes and earthquakes are located make it possible to assume the following picture of their interaction. In the case when both sources are in a dynamically unstable state, near the critical discharge point, and the energy of the earthquake source exceeds the energy of the mud volcano source, an earthquake can occur, accompanied by a mud volcano eruption. Seismic energy in this case will be partially spent on the mud volcanic effect.
In the case when both sources are in a near-critical state, but the source of the mud volcano is closer to its limit, the eruption can precede a seismic shock, and the stress field in the area decreases somewhat, which can reduce the effect of the earthquake. In some cases, an earthquake may not occur. Then the mud volcanic eruption serves as a way to relieve stress. But, at the same time, if the source of a mud volcano, or the source of an earthquake, is far from its critical state of eruption, then seismic tremors can occur independently of each other.
Eruptions of mud volcanoes are associated with the stressed state of the interior and reflect its dynamics, and the activity of mud volcanoes can be used as an indicator of this stressed state.
Mud volcanoes (volcanoids) - satellites of oil and gas
Mud volcanoes are a kind of ascending springs. In addition to water, gas, oil, during their eruption, hilly mud is ejected to the surface, consisting not only of crushed clay mixed with water, and pieces of various sedimentary rocks. The water that is part of the mud mud evaporates, and what is called mud breccia remains on the slopes of the volcano and at its foot - fragments of ejected rocks cemented by clay material settling from the mud. Sopochnaya breccia is a very loose rock.
A large number of mud volcanoes (volcanoids) are known within the USSR. There are especially many of them in the Caucasus - they are found on the Taman Peninsula, in Georgia, in Azerbaijan and in other places. There are 220 mud volcanoes in East Azerbaijan and the adjoining water area of the Caspian Sea.
I. M. Gubkin also studied mud volcanoes. In the system of the Academy of Sciences of the Azerbaijan SSR, a sector of mud volcanism was organized, which was led by A. A. Yakubov, a student of I. M. Gubkin.
Mud volcanoes of the South-Eastern Caucasus can be attributed to unique natural phenomena. Since time immemorial, they have attracted the attention of man.
What factors determine mud volcanic manifestations in general and in Azerbaijan in particular?
A. A. Yakubov, answering this question, refers to the main conditions of mud volcanic manifestations:
- the presence in the section of thick strata of plastic clayey rocks, which serve as the source material for the formation of hill breccia;
- the presence of formation waters softening clayey rocks;
- the presence of powerful sources of hydrocarbon gases, the accumulation of which in certain areas leads to the formation of high pressures, i.e. creates an active driving force;
- the presence of tectonic breaks that create paths for the ejection of hilly material from great depths to the day surface.
All this is most often found within oil fields confined to diapiric folds. There are also fractures-faults, and masses of brecciated material resulting from the piercing of the core of the fold of overlying rocks, and gases, and oil, and water. It is clear that gases escaping along cracks and faults carry water from aquifers, as well as brecciated material.
On fig. Figure 7 shows the geological profile through the mud volcano Lokbatan. It is located in the arch of the anticline fold and is confined to the places of tectonic faults. The crater of the volcano breaks through a complex of sediments from the Upper Pliocene to the Upper Cretaceous to a depth of 6 km. Rice. 7 is a clear illustration of the relationship between mud volcanism and the oil and gas content of sedimentary strata.
Mud volcanoes periodically erupt, and the frequency of eruptions depends on the oscillatory tectonic movements of the earth's crust and on the rate of accumulation of gas pressure in the volcanic vents.
The gases emitted by the mud volcanoes of Azerbaijan consist mainly of methane and other hydrocarbon gases, as well as their accompanying CO 2 and N 2 .
The eruption of mud volcanoes in most cases is accompanied by an outpouring of mud flows, ignition of gases and the appearance of fire columns above the volcanoes. Together with the mud of the hillocks, fragments of hard rocks are carried out, which, escaping at high speed from the mouth of the volcano, heat up to a high temperature and ignite the erupted gases. Mud volcanoes in Azerbaijan usually have the shape of a truncated cone with a height of 5-150 to 400-500 m. Outwardly, they resemble magmatic volcanoes. On fig. 8 shows one of the hills of the Astrakhanka mud volcano. Water, gas and mud are periodically released from the hill and griffins.
During periods of eruptions, mud volcanoes are a grandiose sight. For more than half a century, the sea mud volcano of the Caspian Los Island, one of the largest in the system of volcanoes of the Baku archipelago, has been in a calm state. When he woke up, he threw a thousand-meter column of flame into the atmosphere, the reflection of which could be seen at a distance of up to 70 km by many Baku residents. According to eyewitnesses, the eruption began with a powerful underground rumble, black smoke appeared over the island, and a mushroom-shaped cloud of water vapor grew. On a number of boreholes located 800 m from the island, oil workers felt the heat of the outbreak of flame. The power of the volcano was also evidenced by the fact that small particles of clay rocks and dust were carried to Bulla Island, located 15 km from the site of the eruption. The instruments of the seismic station "Baku" recorded a local shaking of the earth's crust. In terms of strength, duration and volume of ejected rocks, this eruption is one of the most significant on the islands of the Baku archipelago in recent decades.
In October 1977, with a formidable rumble and a powerful ejection to a height of more than 200 m, the mud volcano Lokbatan, located near the capital of Azerbaijan, "woke up". Lokbatan is one of the most powerful mud volcanoes, characterized by great activity. The eruption in 1977 was the seventeenth in the last century and a half. Rocks ejected from the ground are saturated with oil, which indicates the presence of oil and gas at great depths in this and other parts of Azerbaijan.
Near the village The crater of a small mud volcano rises to a height of one and a half meters on the Sennaya on Taman, which is mentioned in the "Travel notes to many Russian provinces" by the writer G. Gerakov, a contemporary of A. S. Pushkin: "We went to the mountain, which exactly two years before flames and thick smoke threw out dirt and stones. Old-timers remember how in the 1920s and 1940s. with an explosion, gases escaped from the ground, columns of flame were observed for several days. For the last time, the city of Karabetka again showed itself with an explosion of such force that windows flew out in the summer house of the sheep breeders. A lake of volcanic mud formed, and a new small hill in the shape of a cone appeared on the southern slope of the mountain. The current new slide is the same mud volcano, but so far more or less calm.
It is believed that the "roots" of some mud volcanoes in Azerbaijan reach a depth of 10-11 km. Thus, volcanoes carry geological information about the oil and gas content of deep horizons to the Earth's surface without drilling special superdeep wells. It can be said that the vents of mud volcanoes are natural wells, because the products of volcanic eruption - rocks saturated with oil and gas, are reliable criteria for the oil and gas content of the subsoil.
Again volcanoes, and even mud! What it is? Where they are?
At the beginning of the book, we said that the Crimea is considered a geological museum, and, like any good museum, it is rich in various "exhibits". Only these "exhibits" do not lie on adjacent shelves or in adjacent rooms, but are separated from each other by tens and even hundreds of kilometers.
To get acquainted with mud volcanoes, for example, we will have to go to the eastern tip of the Kerch Peninsula. It is best to go there by train from Simferopol to Kerch.
Eight kilometers from the city, behind the village of Bondarenkovo, in a ring of low hills made of reef limestone, there is an almost flat area.
If we walk along this plain from the village of Bondarenkovo in the direction to the north, then to the right of the country road we will see a wide, but shallow basin.
In the hollow, a dull picture will open before us: bare, even devoid of grass cover, gray-brown earth, in some places some kind of conical mounds, and in the center of the hollow there is a round lake, 20-25 meters in diameter, filled with liquid mud.
This is the largest group of active mud volcanoes on the Kerch Peninsula.
But you will forget about the ugliness of the landscape, which has nothing to do with the mountainous and rocky harsh landscape of Karadag, if you come closer and begin to observe these miniature volcanoes in action.
The largest central volcano has a wide crater filled to the brim with liquid mud. From a distance we took it for a small lake.
In the center of the crater, the mud continuously bubbles, as if in a boiling cauldron, and is thrown up in small fountains. Flowing in thin streams over the edges of the crater, it spreads along the very gentle slope of the volcano. On a hot summer day, the mud quickly dries up on the slopes, covering them with a thin white, like snow, coating of tiny crystals of salt containing boron.
But the picture is not always so peaceful. For months and even years, the volcano slowly breathes, releasing gas and a small amount of dirt. But suddenly, suddenly, a powerful mud fountain several tens of meters high is thrown out of the crater. The volcano itself and the area adjacent to it are filled with a thick layer of mud. The mud dries up only from the surface, a hard crust is formed 10-20 centimeters thick, broken by numerous cracks. This crust also covers the inner edges of the crater, reducing its original dimensions.
Beware of walking on this crust and do not approach the crater. The crust bends underfoot, and near the crater it will not withstand the weight of a person. You can suddenly, as if in a quagmire, fall into a crater masked by a treacherous crust and disappear forever in its mouth. In 1953, this almost happened to one of the sightseers. Forgetting caution, he got too close to the crater. The mud crust could not withstand his weight, he fell through, but, fortunately, managed to spread his arms and, thanks to this, did not sink headlong and got to the surface.
It is no coincidence that the locals call these volcanoes a mud abyss.
In addition to mud volcanoes with wide craters filled with liquid mud and periodically showing violent activity, in this basin one can see many steep cones ranging in height from several tens of centimeters to several meters. These small volcanoes with their shape and nature of the eruption give the full impression of real volcanoes, being their tiny models.
They also spewing mud, which constantly gurgles in the crater, but these eruptions are never plentiful and violent. That is why they form a kind of volcanic cone, as small portions of mud dry up quickly, not having time to spread, and the dried mud, like hardened lava, forms steep cones.
When observing the activity of mud volcanoes, the thought involuntarily arises of their connection with the magma chamber, but this assumption begins to seem erroneous when we learn that the mud is cold.
The question of the origin of mud volcanoes has not yet been finally resolved. Most researchers are inclined to believe that the "roots" of these volcanoes, or the focus of their eruptions, although located at great depths, do not lie below the limits of the distribution of sedimentary rocks.
The Kerch Peninsula is composed of a thick layer of sedimentary rocks of the Tertiary age. The most ancient rocks of this age are a stratum of clays with a thickness of about three kilometers; they underlie various, younger sedimentary rocks of the peninsula. These clays contain a significant amount of organic matter, buried in them many millions of years ago, when these rocks were formed, deposited as silt at the bottom of the sea. During the decomposition of organic matter contained in clays, a significant amount of gas, similar in composition to methane, is released. Huge pressure is created inside the rocks. Using cracks in the overlying rocks, in some places the gas breaks out to the surface. The channel through which the gas comes to the surface crosses the layers of all overlying rocks. Many of them contain large amounts of groundwater. Water, mixing with fragments of clay rocks, forms that liquid mud, which fills the gas outlet channel or the mouth of a mud volcano. Gradually, the escaping gas in the form of bubbles rises to the surface. When a lot of gas accumulates in the depths, it pushes a mass of dirt out of the vent, producing powerful mud eruptions.
Perhaps there is also some connection between the deep chambers of the volcano and magmatic waters coming from even greater depths, since the erupted mud contains a small amount of boron, an element characteristic of magmatic waters.
Thus, for a long time, a huge amount of liquefied clay rocks is carried out from great depths. The space vacated in the earth's crust is filled with gradually settling overlying layers. As a result, a depression is formed on the surface, similar to the basin in which the group of mud volcanoes observed by us is located.
Some researchers believe that the eruption of mud volcanoes began several million years ago, when the entire Kerch Peninsula was the bottom of a shallow sea and the mud erupted by volcanoes under water spread over the seabed.
On the Kerch Peninsula, there are mud volcanoes in other places. Even at the bottom of the Kerch Strait and the Sea of Azov, underwater mud eruptions were observed, forming mud islands, which, however, were quickly washed out by the sea.
Sometimes the eruption is so strong that the mud floods the nearby villages, as, for example, it was in 1909 and 1914 with the huge mud volcano Dzhau-Tepe, located in the center of the Kerch Peninsula. Currently, this largest mud volcano is not active.
You will not find any minerals here, except for white deposits of boron compounds on the surface of dried mud.
We have become accustomed to judging powerful geological processes by their results, imprinted in the earth's layers, rocks and minerals, the products of these phenomena. Geological processes in action are rarely observed by humans. Therefore, the spectacle of active volcanoes, even mud volcanoes, will remain as one of the strongest impressions, although we will leave these places without the usual load of interesting stone finds.
If you find an error, please highlight a piece of text and click Ctrl+Enter.
mud volcano- a geological formation, which is a hole or depression on the surface of the earth (salsa) or a cone-shaped elevation with a crater (mud hill), makaluba, from which mud masses and gases are constantly or periodically erupted onto the surface of the Earth, often accompanied by water and oil.
The crater of one of the mud volcanoes near the village of Bondarenkovo. May 2016 photo
This type of volcano is found mainly in oil-bearing and volcanic areas, often fumarolespassing through layers of clay and volcanic ash. The gases released together with the dirt can ignite spontaneously, forming flares. The system of vertical and inclined channels, through which a mass of mud breccias of different consistency, water, liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons, gases, and other components enter the surface, is usually called the roots of mud volcanoes in the geological literature. Indirect, but interesting data on the genesis of mud volcanoes can be obtained by studying the composition of gases involved in eruptive processes or coming to the surface as a result of salso-griffin activity. The results of numerous analyzes of gases from the volcanoes of the Caucasus, Turkmenistan and Sakhalin Island have shown that, as a rule, methane predominates in them; the amount of nitrogen and heavy hydrocarbon gases is very small, and inert argon, xenon and krypton are present only in fractions of a percent (in some volcanoes of the Kerch region and Sakhalin Island, along with methane, carbon dioxide becomes widespread). Unlike mud volcanoes, true or magmatic volcanoes practically do not emit methane.
For the occurrence of mud volcanism, thick plastic strata, the presence of formation waters, the accumulation of continuously incoming gases, the existence of tectonic ruptures, and abnormally high formation pressure are necessary. When mud volcanoes are located in areas of active volcanism, such as in Sicily on the slopes of Etna or in Iceland, they can accompany ordinary volcanic eruptions and erupt in streams of hot liquid mud. According to the well-known geologist Prof. S.A. Kovalevsky "between mud volcanism and volcanic activity there is the same relationship as between the flame of the hearth and the boiling of a pan." A confirmation of his words is Etna, on the slopes of which, in the form of side craters, you can find both ordinary volcanic and macalubs. That is, volcanic gases can come to the surface hot and form fumaroles, solfataras, mofets, or cool along the way, interact with groundwater and organic matter. Therefore, as you move away from the crater, the volcanic outcrops of Etna gradually transform into mud volcanoes.
Distributed in the basins of the Caspian (Absheron Peninsula and eastern Georgia), the Black and Azov Seas (Taman Peninsula, Kerch Peninsula), Europe (Italy, Iceland), New Zealand and America. The largest mud volcanoes have a diameter of 10 km and a height of 700 m. On the Taman Peninsula, volcanoes are known on the Miska and Rotten mountains in Temryuk, as well as a volcano near the village of Golubitskaya with therapeutic mud (objects of visiting excursions from Anapa and other resorts). There are more than 50 active volcanoes on the Kerch Peninsula, spewing mud: high and almost flat, periodic and constantly active. The most significant accumulation of mud volcanoes on the Kerch Peninsula is located 8 km north of the city of Kerch near the village of Bondarenkovo (b. Bulganak); The Bulganak field with a group of 7 mud volcanoes is a desert basin with a diameter of about 400 m in an almost flat area with scattered conical mounds, in the center of the basin there is a round lake filled with mud.
Griffins are a kind of mini-volcanoes, up to 3 m in height, which usually do not exceed half a meter. Griffins spew silt, gas, water, oil and do not raise solid rock fragments to the surface at all. As a rule, their emissions are mud of various consistencies - from a thick creamy solution to liquid hill silts. Mud volcanoes, widespread both in the western and eastern hemispheres of our planet, are for geologists a kind of "free exploration drilling". the depth from which they deliver various rocks, gases and mineralized waters to the surface, sometimes reaching 10-12 km, is inaccessible to modern drilling technology. Mud volcanism is a very interesting and mysterious natural phenomenon, which is closely related to the tectonic development of volcanic regions, as well as to the oil and gas content of the subsoil. The mechanism of formation of such volcanoes is complex and still not entirely clear. The very term "mud volcano" was controversial for a long time and was established in the geological literature relatively recently. The total number of mud volcanoes known on Earth exceeds 700. A significant number of them are located in the Caucasus. The largest area of their development is Azerbaijan. They are on Sakhalin, in the Crimea, in Mexico, Colombia, Italy, India, Japan, China and the Malay Archipelago. It is known that mud volcanoes originate in areas where folded movements are actively manifested and there are thick strata of sedimentary rocks. And this is no coincidence - for their formation, a network of faults is needed, creating opportunities for gas breakthrough through sedimentary rock layers, multi-meter clayey strata, contributing to the occurrence of abnormally high formation gas pressures in the subsoil, and aquifers. Faults for gas deposits and aquifers play the role of migration channels. Gases and water entrain clay and hard rocks and, in the process of transportation to the surface, process them into clays containing various amounts of hard fragments.
In addition to terrestrial, underwater mud volcanoes are also known. Their eruptions often result in the formation of islands that are quickly washed away by waves. The areas of the sea where mud volcanoes are located are dangerous for navigation and must be marked in the sailing directions. Some mud volcanoes are active more or less constantly, while others erupt periodically. Eruptions of mud volcanoes, as a rule, do not threaten human life and do not cause material damage. In the photo: the 2001 eruption of the Loktaban mud volcano. Azerbaijan. Salsas are usually called funnels filled with silt in the form of underdeveloped semi-cones. The largest of them, exceeding 30 m in diameter, are usually classified as mud volcanic lakes. An approaching eruption is usually indicated by the rise of the volcano's crater wall to a noticeable height, active outflows of mud, gases, as well as rumble and roar. These signs allow you to leave a dangerous place in advance. A violent eruption of a mud volcano is the unloading of hydrocarbon gases accumulated in the depths, which, freed from pressure, rush up the cracks. They spontaneously ignite on the Earth's surface. The height of the flame column in this case can reach more than 500 m, and the combustion temperature is 1200°C. Together with the fire, a huge amount of dirt, rock fragments and water is thrown high into the sky. This is a classic picture of a mud volcano eruption. In the photo: a mud pot in the Valley of Geysers, Kamchatka. A column of flame and streams of mud that accompanied the eruption of the Lokbatan mud volcano in October 2001.
Despite the rather local nature of the eruption of mud volcanoes, there are several cases of death of people and animals. So, in 1902, during a sudden eruption of the Bozdag-Kobi volcano in Azerbaijan, 6 shepherds and 2,000 sheep died. This happened due to the fact that the shepherds decided to spend the night with the herd in the crater of the volcano, where a brackish lake was located, which served as a watering hole. Both people and animals were burned alive in a flame that suddenly burst out of the ground. In 1932, reports appeared in the press about human casualties in the explosion of the Svinoy volcano in the Caspian Sea. All mud volcanoes are located along large tectonic zones and carry information about the oil and gas potential of the area. In addition, it was noted that the activation of mud volcanic activity often accompanies or precedes earthquakes, as well as eruptions of magmatic volcanoes. Not far from the city of Wusu, located in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (Western China), a group of 40 mud volcanoes was found. This is the largest cluster of such volcanoes found in China. Mud volcanoes are direct signs of the existence of powerful deposits of oil and gas. A relationship has been established between mud volcanism and other minerals, primarily with iron ore deposits of sedimentary origin, as well as with manifestations of sulfur, mercury, arsenic and some rare metals. By the way, volcanic mud is widely used in medicine. It has been established that it, enriched with mineral salts, organic substances and microelements, has a beneficial effect on the human body and is used to treat people suffering from diseases of the nervous system, gastrointestinal tract, polyarthritis and polynephritis. © Around the world
