FUN TRIVIA FACT: which country has the most mud volcanos?
ANSWER: Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan contains at least 400 mud volcanos, which is roughly half of the number that have been identified in the world to date.
Photo credit: Amrita Ronnachit
What are mud volcanos?
Just to be clear, they aren’t real volcanos. They do look like volcanos though, baby volcanos that pump out mud instead of lava.
I guess the name has stuck.
Photo credit: Amrita Ronnachit
Mud volcanos form in subduction zones – collision sites between tectonic plates – where gas is continually making its way to the surface, bringing with it a mix of oil and mud.
Photo credit: Amrita Ronnachit
Mud volcanos tend to occur where there are subterranean reserves of gas and oil, which Azerbaijan has no shortage of – on the way to Gobustan you will see crude oil oozing out of the ground.
The gas being emitted is predominantly methane, which means these little baby volcanos are highly flammable; smoking while standing next to an active mud volcano is not recommended. 😀
The mud volcanos of Gobustan, Azerbaijan
Photo credit: Amrita Ronnachit
In Gobustan, an hour outside of Baku, there are a number of easily accessed mud volcanos.
They’re found on a bleak, treeless stretch of Caspian Sea coastline; the surrounding landscape resembling a post-apocalyptic, post-nuclear-fallout Earth.
Photo credit: Benjamin White
Move towards the bleakest, most-scorched section of land in sight and there are the baby volcanos.
Glopping, belching, spluttering, splatting, splopping; oily mud occasionally overflowing the crater brim, spilling down the side of the volcano like spittle running down a baby’s chin.
Photo credit: Benjamin White
You’re free to wander around and enjoy the mud volcanos as you like.
Some of the mud is very fresh and soft though – as Ami discovered – so watch out. 😀
Photo credit: Benjamin White
Practical information and how to reach the mud volcanos:
Gobustan is located approximately 65km south of Baku. There are no public transport options to the volcanos, so either hire a private car or taxi for the day, or join a tour. There was no road signage at the time of my visit (2017), so if you are making your own way to the volcanos make sure you have rock-solid directions. More transport info here.
More on Azerbaijan:
Baku – at 28m below sea level, it’s the world’s deepest capital
Gobustan – stone age petroglyphs that inspired Thor Heyerdahl
Posts on the Caucasus:
Georgia:
Batumi – from Medea and the Golden Fleece to the Las Vegas of the Black Sea
Vardzia – 400 room, 19 level cave city. Watch out for falling rocks!
Ushguli – watchtowers on every house; even Genghis Khan was deterred
Nagorno-Karabakh:
Sea Stone Hotel, Vank – a lion head carved into the hillside. Pure genius!
Armenia:
The Temple of Garni – a much smaller Parthenon, built for the sun god Mihr
Noravank – the New Monastery of 1205 CE with its famous Stairs of Death
Zorats Karer – 223 standing stones in a grassy field. Is it linked to Stonehenge?
What an amazing landscape, it does look what you expect the moon to be like in a way, but not that muddy!! It would be fun to visit all that gloopy mud.
Kazzieandkitty
Yes, the landscape is pretty amazing. Very bleak, very hard. Fitting in a way that a place like this would have flammable gas and mud spitting out of the ground.