Taftan volcano stirs up after 700,000 years as ground seen rising from space

The Taftan volcano in Iran, which has never erupted in human history, is showing signs of activity, with scientists saying it is stirring up. A new study has flagged that the volcano in southeastern Iran has risen by about 3.5 inches in just 10 months. This means that certain forces have become active underneath, and it is important to monitor the Taftan. But the volcano does not have on-the-ground instruments such as continuous GPS receivers, and so satellites become the best way to look at it. InSAR, a radar method that measures ground motion from space, was used to track changes in the volcano. Researchers gathered data from Sentinel-1 satellites, which spotted that the uplift in the Taftan continued for 10 months and was located at the centre of the summit, Earth.com reported.

The pressure is still there since this uplift has not gone down. The exact point where the pressure has built sits around 1,600 to 2,070 feet below the surface. This shallow location suggests that the gases are located in a hydrothermal system where hot water and gases move around under a volcano. Researchers have flagged a need to monitor the Taftan volcano regularly, but since it is located in an extremely remote area, they will have to turn to space technology to gather data on it. Pablo J. González from the Institute of Natural Products and Agrobiology’s Spanish National Research Council (IPNA) is the lead author of the study published in Geophysical Research Letters.

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The Taftan volcano and the uplift

To be sure that no external forces were to blame for this surge, scientists checked whether heavy rain and earthquakes could be a catalyst. However, they were quickly ruled out, and they are sure that internal forces are at work inside the volcano. The shallow pressure zone sits above the body of magma, which is flowing 3.2 kilometres below the volcano. The uplift could be caused by two reasons: Either the gas is building up in tight rocks and fractures, or a small pulse of melt has released volatiles into the shallower plumbing deep down.

Taftan volcano is 12,9270 feet high and built of layers of lava and ash. There is a lack of proper records on its eruption history in the past 10,000 years. But, research has found that its last eruption happened roughly 710,000 years ago. It has witnessed a total of five different active eruption periods.