Zalzala Koh (, ''Earthquake Mountain'') or Zalzala Jazeera (''Earthquake Island'') was a small island off the coast of the port city of

Gwadar Gwadar ( Balochi/ ur, ) is a port city with located on the southwestern coast of Balochistan, Pakistan. The city is located on the shores of the Arabian Sea opposite Oman. Gwadar is the 100th largest city of Pakistan, according to the 2017 ...

Balochistan Balochistan ( ; bal, بلۏچستان; also romanised as Baluchistan and Baluchestan) is a historical region in Western and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. ...

province of

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

which appeared on 24 September 2013 following an earthquake. As predicted by many geologists, the island soon started to submerge, with satellite images indicating the island had sunk into the sea one month after its initial appearance. By the end of 2016, the island had disappeared.

Formation

Zalzala Koh may have been be a

mud volcano A mud volcano or mud dome is a landform created by the eruption of mud or slurries, water and gases. Several geological processes may cause the formation of mud volcanoes. Mud volcanoes are not true igneous volcanoes as they do not produce la ...

,"Pakistan earthquake creates new island, 'mud volcano to blame'"
NBC News. located in the

Arabian Sea The Arabian Sea ( ar, اَلْبَحرْ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Bahr al-ˁArabī) is a region of the northern Indian Ocean bounded on the north by Pakistan, Iran and the Gulf of Oman, on the west by the Gulf of Aden, Guardafui Channel ...

offshore of

. It rose out of the water during a 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck the same province on 24 September 2013. Ali Rashid Tabriz, the head of Pakistan's National Institute of Oceanography, said that the surfacing of the island had been caused by an emission of

methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The relative abundance of methane on Ea ...

gas on the seabed.

Location

The island was visible from Pakistan's coastline and was about from the shore, with a height of , a length of , width of , and a surface of (measured from satellite Pleiades). These figures were debated, though.Earthquake Births New Island off Pakistan
NASA Earth Observatory, 2013-09-26.

Ecology

While the surface was lifeless, the seas around the island became a haven for fish and other life forms (including the

coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and ...

'' Acabaria delicata''), which boosted the local fishing industry.

References

External links

"New Island Pakistan"
Today News Gazette. Retrieved 25 September 2013. {{Islands of Pakistan Uninhabited islands of Pakistan Ephemeral islands Islands of the Arabian Sea Volcanic islands Islands of Gwadar 2013 in science 2013 in Pakistan Former islands

Formation

Location

Ecology

See also

References

External links