Mud volcano of Khara-Zira Island

Mud volcano is situated 13 km east off cape Alat and 5km south-east off Zenbil Island. Its mapview shape is oval estimating 3.5sq km, its length together with cape amounts to 3.3km. In terms of morphology the island represents mud volcano crater and crater rampart. The crater field is elevated 30m above the sea level. Khara-Zira is frequently erupted mud volcano. Starting from 1810 up to 1997 10 eruptions have been recorded. Most its eruptions occurred with column of fire, particularly very high in 1857 and 1940. Mud volcano eruption of 1940 was particularly  strong with huge amount of some million cu m

outburst mud breccias that covered 156 he area. Black volcanic ash has covered the entire island. Relatively large amount of outburst breccias were erupted in 1960 (270th cu m, 18 he). Quite strong eruption occurred in 1997 when there outburst over 100 th cu m mud breccias along with “lapilli” – melted vitreous and agglutinated small pieces of mud.