The underwater explosion that occurred in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea had been caused by mud volcano eruption, Azerbaijan’s state energy company SOCAR said in a statement published on July 5.
The mud volcano erupted in Dashli Island, 30 km off the coast between Alat settlement and Neftchala city, SOCAR said, stressing that no oil and gas infrastructure had been damaged during the blast.
The mud volcano in the Azerbaijani waters of the Caspian Sea continued for eight minutes, and the flame – for 20-25 seconds, the Director-General of the Republican Seismological Service of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) Gurban Yetirmishli told local media.
In his words, the volcano eruption began at 21:51 (GMT+4) on July 4.
“The depth of the magmatic core of the volcano was 1.48 kilometers, and the capacity – 2.17 ml. The island itself was formed as a result of the eruption of this mud volcano. The last time the volcano erupted in 1945,” he said.
Stressing that there are many submarine volcanoes in the Caspian Sea, Yetrimishli reminded that an artificial island was formed as a result of an earthquake in the Caspian Sea back in 2000.
