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Left: NASA’s EO-1 satellite captured the first image of the new island on 26 September; right: Satellite image taken on April 17 shows no such island. Courtesy: NASA

On 24 September, a 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit the Baluchistan province of northwestern Pakistan . The earthquake also gave birth to a new island off in the Paddi Zirr (West Bay) near Gwadar some 230 miles (370 km) from the epicenter. On September 26, 2013, the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite captured the first image of the new island. Lighter shades of green and tan in the water reveal shallow seafloor or suspended sediment. An aerial image, provided by the National Institute of Oceanography of Pakistan, shows a close-up view of the new island which is estimated to stretch 75 to 90 metres (250 to 300 feet) across and stands 15 to 20 metres (60 to 70 feet) above the water line.

Aerial image of the new island. Courtesy: National Institute of Oceanography, Pakistan

The new island has been named “Zalzala Koh”. In Arabic, “zalzala” means an earthquake and “koh” means a rock or a mountain. However, experts believe that it is just a “mud volcano”. The underground pocket of gas will cool, compress, or escape over time, allowing the crust to collapse and settle back down. Waves, storms, and tidal action from the Arabian Sea will also wash away the loose sand, soft clay, and mud. “The island is really just a big pile of mud from the seafloor that got pushed up,” said Bill Barnhart, a geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey who studies earthquakes in Pakistan and Iran. “This area of the world seems to see so many of these features because the geology is correct for their formation. You need a shallow, buried layer of pressurized gas—methane, carbon dioxide, or something else—and fluids. When that layer becomes disturbed by seismic waves (like an earthquake), the gases and fluids become buoyant and rush to the surface, bringing the rock and mud with them.”

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