Dodoma, Tanzania

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Earth has a weird volcano located in Tanzania which, while continuously erupting carbonatite lava, is also sinking inside the ground at a speed of 1.4 inches per annum in the last decade.

The Ol Doinyo Lengai volcano is filled with magma which has been erupting beyond the ground hose but at the same time sinking for the past 10 years, according to a new study.

The scientists believe that the volcano is sinking because of the deflating reservoir which is located just beneath the two craters of the volcano.

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Here's what the study says about Ol Doinyo Lengai volcano

In the new research, it has been found that the ground near the summit of Ol Doinyo Lengai volcano - which is present along the active rift zone in East Africa - has been sinking at the rate of 1.4 inches (3.6 centimetres) every year between 2013 and 2023.

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This meant that the 9,718-foot-tall (2,962 meters) volcano shrank by nearly 1.2 feet (36 cm) during the study, which was published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters on June 8.

The data collected from two satellite systems, Sentinel-1 and Cosmo-SkyMed, was used by the researchers to produce maps which showed the changes taking place in the ground around Ol Doinyo Lengai through time.

In the maps, a circular patch of ground was seen around the northern crater of the volcano, which indicated that it was "moving away from the satellite with a steady rate of displacement over time," said the researchers, in the study.

Rare volcano Ol Doinyo Lengai boasts of extremely runny magma

This volcano is the only one existing on Earth which has an actively erupting and extremely runny carbonatite magma. The magma is saturated with alkali elements, like calcium and sodium and is poor in silica.

Volcanologist and associate professor at Denison University in Ohio Erik Klemetti, in a Wired article, wrote, "If you had to pick the most unique volcano on Earth, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better candidate than Tanzania's Ol Doinyo Lengai".

The lava which is flowing from Ol Doinyo Lengai is "some of the strangest stuff you'll ever see," he said, adding that it is producing weird "garden hose" eruptions which will leave behind white stains.

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In earlier research, it was said that the newly-blasted crater is likely to be subsiding, however, as per the new study, the crater's upper slopes have started sinking since 2013.

As per the study, the likely cause for this sinking volcano was the deflating magma reservoir, which is located 3,300 feet (1,000 m) under the volcano.

"The geometry and characteristics of the shallow magma plumbing system below Ol Doinyo Lengai remain elusive," wrote the researchers, in the study. There was a hint of a shallow reservoir in the previous studies.

It is likely that this reservoir is connected to a bigger magma storage area of 9,900 feet (3,000 m) or is located deeper beneath the volcano, as per the study.

(With inputs from agencies)