An Iranian volcano long thought extinct may be showing signs of activity after thousands of years. The Taftan volcano, located near the Iran-Pakistan border, was believed to have been dormant for roughly 7.1 lakh years.
The area near the volcano's summit rose by 3.5 inches (9 cm) over ten months, from July 2023 to May 2024, as per new research published on October 7 in Geophysical Research Letters. The study, led by volcanologist Pablo Gonzalez of the Institute of Natural Products and Agrobiology (IPNA-CSIC) in Spain, warns that the findings suggest Taftan could pose a risk to nearby populations.
Traditionally, a volcano is classified as extinct if it has not erupted during the Holocene epoch, which began 11,700 years ago.
Gonzalez argues that Taftan should now be considered dormant due to its recent geological activity.
"It has to release somehow in the future, either violently or more quietly,” Gonzalez told Live Science. “This study doesn't aim to produce panic in the people. It's a wake-up call to the authorities in the region in Iran to designate some resources to look at this,” he added.
The Taftan volcano stands at a height of 12,927 feet (3,940 metres) in southeastern Iran and is surrounded by a cluster of smaller mountains and vents formed by the Arabian ocean crust.
Because the location is so remote, there is no GPS tracking system to offer completely accurate imagery. Still, some satellite footage analysed by doctoral student Mohammadhossein Mohammadnia, who worked with Gonzalez, revealed a minor rise in the ground.
Researchers writing in the journal Geophysical Research Letters "unambiguously" claim instability at the volcano, with data suggesting that the ground at the southeastern summit expanded by approximately 9 centimetres (3.5 inches) over 10 months.
"Our findings reveal that Taftan is more active than previously recognised. This highlights the urgent need for a revision of the current volcano risk of the Makran subduction volcanic arc, that is, establishing volcano monitoring networks, creating and/or updating geological hazard maps and other measures aiming to reduce volcanic risks," the authors wrote in the study.
The study is still ongoing, and the pair plans to collaborate with experts who monitor gas levels at volcanoes in the future, Gonzalez explained.
