Bubbling vents
Grey mud bubbles.
Naturefriends — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Tumanskaya Sabina — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Bernard Gagnon — CC BY 4.0 · Chmee2 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Chmee2 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Diego Delso — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Chmee2 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Chmee2 — CC BY-SA 4.0
A field of small mud volcanoes south of the Gobustan reserve near Alat, where cool grey mud bubbles up from their craters in a scene that looks like another planet. Azerbaijan has one of the highest concentrations of mud volcanoes in the world, with hundreds of them. Mud volcanoes are not true volcanoes: they erupt no lava. Instead, gas pressure from deep underground pushes a slurry of water, mud and minerals to the surface through cracks, and most of the gas they release is methane. They build small cones and constantly bubbling vents, with mud streams that dry and crack the ground around them. The best known is Dashgil, whose main crater is ringed by dozens of small bubbling vents; you can walk among them and touch the mud, which some people believe is good for the skin. Walking among the volcanoes is usually free. The way in is on rough dirt tracks passable only for local cars or four-wheel-drives, which drivers near Gobustan offer for a fee, and the tracks may be impassable after rain. Wear old shoes, as the mud sticks to everything, and keep back from the most active vents.
Grey mud bubbles.
The best-known cone.
An otherworldly scene.
Dashgil area near Alat, south of the Gobustan reserve, about seventy-five kilometres south-west of Baku
No, the mud is usually cool; these are not true volcanoes, and the mud is pushed up by gas rather than heat.