All About Mud Volcanoes Guliy

Mud volcanism is pne of the most interesting nature phenomenon, which occurs in many coun- tries of the world. However, Azerbaijan is unrivalled Geology Institute in number of volcanoes, variety of forms, freguency Azerbaijan Academy of of eruptions.Mud volcanoes differing from magmatic Sciences volcanoes on activity area astonish by their beauty, ALL ABOUT MUD but their direct connection with oil and gas system VOLCANOES attracts the great attention for study. Hundreds of monographies, scientific articles and popular-science brochures written by Azeri scientists are dedi- Editor: cated to the problems of mud volcanism. But this Dr. Rashid D. Jevanshir book is the first popular-science brochure about mud volcanoes written in English and it significantly extends the readers' circle, who are interested in The book is set up in Sci- this unigue nature phenomenon.This book com- entific-publishing sector of pletely corresponding to its title, elucidates on a GIA, prented by offset method in broad sphere of fundamental and practical aspects "Azerbaijan" of mud volcanism and at the same time the book Publishing House. doesn't yield the preceding publications on colorful arrangement.This book is written in very popular and accessible form for readers of any age and with Responsible for the issue a various career guidance and I think it will be en- Hafiz Abiyev. thusiastically received and supported. Tel.: 39-56-19 By editor 39-39-72 Fax: (99412) 39-41-39 "Azerbaijan" Publishing House order - 1 158 printing - 1000 INTRODUCTION Volcanism is a mighty natural phenomenon circle of readers, discusses their distribution, the which startles the imagination with gigantic bursts of mechanism which drives them, the nature of their activ- . fire and eruptions, deafening roars and explosions. ity, the characteristics of the material from depth which There are few people'who know, however, about the is erupted from them, and the role of volcanoes in solv- less-distinguished relatives of magmatic volcanoes: ing a variety of fundamental atid practical problems. mud volcanoes. The book is rlchiy illustrated with colourful pho- Mud volcanism represents one of the most unu- tographs of various types of mud volcano. sual and interesting phenomena in nature, distinguish- Volcanoes and volcanic eruptions: we associate ing in a variety of forms and a specific character of ac- these words with mighty natural phenomena which tivity. That is why scholars, scientists and tourists have change the face of the Earth. They take us back to for many years been attracted to mud volcanoes. Rec- those distant times when the Earth was a lifeless ords of the massive fiery eruptions of mud volcanoes, planetary body on which the eiements of fire and water I raged. I which are always unexpected, and which capture the attention by their size and mystery, can be traced in ~vejonetoday knows all about magmatic vol- 1 the literature deep into antiquity. As long ago as the canoes. Tens of films have been made about them, 10th century, the great Arabian traveller, geographer hundreds of books, hundreds and thousands of scien- I and historian Masudi described, in his work "Meadows tific papers. And this is understandable, since magmatic of Gold and Mines of Precious Stones", one of the re- volcanoes are not only exotic phenomena, but a window markable eruptions which took place in the Caspian into the deep interior of the Earth. Their study enables Sea within the group of volcanic islands forming the processes occuring in the mantle, which are inaccessi- Baku archipelago. ble by any other method, to be understood. Major contributions to the first systematic stud- Magmatic volcanoes have a very close but al- ies of mud volcanoes were madeby researchers such most unknown relative, referred to variously as -mud as G.V.Abikh, V.A.Gorin, i.M.Gubkin, C.H.Gyumbei, voicanoes, sedimentary volcanoes, gas-oil volcanoes S.A.Kovalevsky, E.A.Shteber and others. etc. Mud volcanoes resemble magmatic voicanoes in In recent decades mud volcanoes have been that they erupt powerfully, with fiames reaching great thoro-ughiy studied by Azeri geologists: A.A.Yakubov, heights (several hundreds of metres), and they erupt Ya.A.Hajiyev, Ad.A.Aiiyev, A.I.Aiiyev, A.A.Alizade, millions of cubic metres of hydrocarbon gases and ton- Z.A.Buniatzade, F.G.Dadashev, F.A.Matanov, Sh.F. nes of mud onto the surface. Mud volcanoes at sea Mehtiyev, R.R.Rahmanov. S.G.Saiayev, M.M.Zeynaiov form islands and banks, altering the topography and and others. As a result we have today an abundance shape of the coastline, and causing local earthquakes. of scientific information on mud volcanoes. However There is one other feature of mud volcanoes this information, in contrast to that regarding magmatic which is of great interest not only to tourists, but also to volc'anoes, has hardly moved beyond the boundaries researchers. This is their direct relationship with oil and of the regions where mud voicanoes occur, and gas fields. Mud volcanoes resemble super-deep explo- therefore is not well-known by the reader from further ration wells, providing valuable information on the for- afield. mation and migration of oil and gas. This book,which is a first attempt to describe mud volcanoes in a form which is accessible to a wide Acknowledgements - The autors are very grateful to the British Petroleum Company for the contribu- tion and popularization of mud volcanism, and flco to Graham Blackbourn for the translation of nhe original Russian text into E~glish. I. MUD VOLCANOES AND ZOROASTRISM Azerbaijan is exceptionally rich in surface gas seeps, some of which are alight (Fig.1). The gas flares which ac- k' -#?-:company the eruption of mud volcanoes are particularly impressive. Fig.1. A burnlng gas seepage - The burning flames have attracted people's attention slnce time immemorial, and they became an object of wor- m n - ship. This is shown by the numerous flre temples at Nush-Dzhan-Tepe. Adurgushnaep. Surakhany (Fig. 23), Pirallahi, Hovsany, Shakhdag and elsewhere. The h~storyof fire worship in Azerbaijan and the neighbouring regions of Iran has its roots deep in the past, at the beglnn~ngof the first m~lleniumA.D * :, '. -.*-, i ,-k*,,.. r.. .. ..,- -.. ;I - .zr I -. d Fig.2. Zoroastrism in Azerbaijan: a) The Temp1 of the fire worshipers; b) The fire worshiper in the cell ALL ABOUT MUD VOLCANOES 3 The cult of fire worship was of paramount importance throughout the history of pre-Islamic Iran. The name of the first monarch of that country was Atrapata, which means "Protected by Fire". Fire worship played a particularly important role during the Sasanid period, when Zoroastrism was prevalent. The founder of Zoroastrism, Zaratushtra, is con- sidered by some scholars to have been born in Southern Azerbaijan. Zoroastrism continued to play an important role for three of four centuries even afler the Arabian conquest. Many examples of Zoroastrian literature date from this time. Great men of Azerbaijan such as Nizami, Khagani and Nasimi dedicated words of inspiration to Zoroastrism. And while Nizami and Khagani warned against fire worship, Nasimi glori- fied fire in almost every poem he wrote. II. BUT WHAT ARE MUD VOLCANOES? The greatest mud volcanoes in the world, Bolyuk Kyanizadag. Touragai , Bolyuk Kharamy and Kalmas, rise majestically above the surrounding landscape (Figs 3- 4). Fig. 3. The Touragai mud volcano. The general view (airial photography after "Atlas ..., 1971). Fig. 4. The Boyuk Haramy mud volca-no.The general view (after "Atlas.... 1971). Fig. 8. The caldera at the summit of the volcano may be gently convex or shell-like in form, or consist of a deep de- pression (Figs. 10-12). The relative height and form of the slopes of a volcano's crater depend on its level of activity and on the nature of the material eru~ted. Fig. 10.The mud flow from caldera of volcano - 1. :- A m R.. L1 coldera of the mud volcano Fig. 12. The coldera of the mud volcano Volcanoes whlch are not known for thelr powerful erupttons but are characterlsed by constant activity of gly- phons and salses do not usually form distinct topographic highs, and sometimes simply merge into the surrounding plaln (Figs. 13-15). Their highest points are usually raised by only 10-20 m, but they often cover an area several kilo- metres across. The craters are up to 400 m in diameter, and the base of the volcano 1s usully hyndreds of metres, and occa- sionally several kliometres, across. The area of the crater field in the largest volcanoes reaches 10 km2, and it is bounded by one or several concen- tric ramparts. Fig. 13 1 ALL ABOUT MUD VOLCANOES 9 Fig. 14 I' Fig. 15 Mud volcanoes are essentially instruments for taking gas and mineral waters, sometimes with traces of oil, to- gether with the associated mud (Figs.16-21), from great depths (8-12 km) (Fig. 22) and depositing them on the surface. During eruptions, angular blocks of rock of various ages and sometimes reaching several metres in diameter (Fig. 23) may also be expelled. They may be perfectly free of the surrounding argillaceous mater~ai,to which they are usuaiiy subordinate in volume. Fig. 17. A1.L ABOUT MUD VOLCANOES 11 7-1 Fig. 18. Fig. 19. Flg. 20.The mud flow with the oil films I mud- gas bubble , ALL ABOUT MUD VOLCANOES 13 F Fig. 22.A scheme of mud volcano. (after S.Kovalevsky) Fig. 23.The blok of rock thrown away by the volcano during eruption The great bulk of the products of mud volcanism are erupted during periodic paroxysmal eruptions. Between these major events, deep material is extruded through domes, salses and gryphons.

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