Thread by @CriticalStress_

Today's #MudVolcanoOfTheDay is the Qarnyarq Mud Volcano in NE Iran. Short thread on an unusual looking mud volcano that looks kinda like a meteor crater!

#MuddyMay

Qarnyarq mud volcano is located In Iran, near the border with Turkmenistan and near the Caspian Sea. You can find it here:
goo.gl/maps/Scihh1y15…

The Qarnyarq mud volcano is set inside a roughly circular crater of ~500m diameter, with a central raised mud cone (~330m across) surrounded by its own little lake.

What a fascinating feature - it's kind of like the mud volcano has made its own little fort with a wall and moat!

I can't find any geological information specifically on this mud volcano, but it is a 'cold' MV and not linked to magmatic activity. There are some lovely photos on Google Maps though!

It does not look like this mud volcano is very active. There does not appear to be much growth over time in historical imagery of Google Earth, and the available ground photos don't show any active vents.

The 'moat' looks like it dries up sometimes, and it seems like the mud volcano is fairly accessible.

There are quite a lot of mud volcanoes in Iran, though most are down near the Persian Gulf. However, not far from Qarnyarq is another similar looking mud volcano, the Gomishan Mud Volcano.

Gomishan is located here: goo.gl/maps/MaVLvhscp…

The Gomishan MV has a central mud salse surrounded by a clear collapse crater with ring-faults. The MV is clearly growing. Photos from 2012 just show a lake, but photos in 2016 show the birth of a new central mud cone, which is very cool and rare to see!

That wraps up a short #MudVolcanoOfTheDay thread on two lovely and unusual mud volcanoes from Northeast Iran. Hope you enjoyed Gomishan and Qarnyarq (wow, what a scrabble word, if there were 2 Qs and place names allowed)!