Eruptions
When a cold volcano bursts into a column of fire.
Fire over the mud
Usually a mud volcano behaves quietly: it bubbles, hisses, slowly grows its cone. But from time to time the pressure of the gas breaks out in a powerful eruption — and then the volcano throws out flows of mud, fragments of rock and huge clouds of gas. Since 1810 about two hundred such eruptions have been counted at fifty Azerbaijani volcanoes.
The most striking is the fire. The methane bursting out in an eruption often ignites, and a column of flame rises over the volcano. At the Garasu volcano such fiery fountains rose hundreds of metres, and during the eruption of Dashli Ada island in 2021 the flame, by reports, reached about half a kilometre in height.
When the earth catches fire
Lokbatan
A volcano 15 km from Baku, erupting with flame more than once; one of its best-known eruptions came in the early 2000s.
Dashli Ada
The eruption of an island-volcano in the Caspian, during which, by reports, a column of fire rose to about half a kilometre.
Garasu
A volcano known for the highest fiery eruptions: when the methane ignited, the flame rose almost a kilometre.
Beautiful but unpredictable
Eruptions of mud volcanoes can be sudden and dangerous: bursts of gas, mud and flame can cover a large area. So active volcanoes are treated with respect: it is best to admire them in quiet periods and from a safe distance.
Most of the time it only quietly bubbles — but one day it can raise to the sky a column of fire as tall as a skyscraper.