Mud volcano erupts near a temple in Wandan, Taiwan
A mud volcano erupted near Huang Yuan Sheng Tien temple in Wandan Township, Pingtung County, Taiwan around 06:00 local time on Friday, April 8, 2022. The eruption left large amounts of mud above ground that flowed into surrounding roads and farmland. This is the second eruption of this mud volcano since October 13, 2021.
The bursts reached as high as a one-story building, and to keep the mud from further spreading into nearby rice paddies, excavators were mobilized to channel mud toward drainage ditches, Wannei Village chief Chen Yu-i told CNA.1
Normally a fire would be lit to accelerate the release of natural gas, but because this eruption occurred close to the temple, the village decided to let the gas release on its own without igniting a fire, Chen said.
This was a relatively shallow geological event resulting from natural gas flowing through underground crevices and reacting chemically with groundwater and rocks to form the boiling mud, Central Weather Bureau Seismological Center Director Chen Kuo-chang said.
About 90 minutes after the mud volcano erupted, a magnitude 5.6 earthquake took place more than 100 km (62 miles) from Wannei and some wondered if the two natural phenomena were connected.
However, Chen said the two events were unrelated because they occurred far from each other and were triggered by different reasons.
References:
1 Mud volcano erupts near temple in Pingtung’s Wandan Township – Focus Taiwan
Featured image credit: Chen Yu-i
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