In this photo released by the Pakistani Government, Pakistani men walk on an island that appeared 2 kilometres off the coastline of Gwadar on Aug. 25, 2013, after an earthquake the day before.
The earthquake that rocked a remote region of southwestern Pakistan on Tuesday wrought destruction but also, strangely, a bit of creation.
The 7.7-magnitude tremor, which destroyed scores of mud huts that dotted the region and killed at least 210 people, is being credited with causing a new island to form in the middle of the Arabian sea. Half-a-mile off the coast of the Pakistani port city of Gwadar, a new expanse of land reported to be 100-feet high and 200-feet wide rose out of the ocean, NBC reports.
Scientists believe the mountainous island formed thanks to an underwater “mud volcano” that sent sand and earth spewing forth amid the quake’s jostling. Officials said a similar island appeared after a 1968 earthquake but disappeared after a year.
[NBC]
Locals clamor to explore the new island that emerged off Pakistan’s Gwadar coastline, September 25, 2013.