Posted on 07/06/2021 6:41:08 PM PDT by Roman_War_Criminal
A huge explosion has been seen off the coast of Azerbaijan in the Caspian Sea, sending plumes of black smoke and flames into the sky.
The blast, which erupted in an area full of oil and gas fields on Sunday, was caused by a mud volcano.
None of the energy stations were damaged and no-one was hurt, it added.
The blast took place about 10km (6 miles) from the Umid gas field, which is 75km (45 miles) off the coast of Azerbaijan’s capital Baku, state oil company Socar spokesperson Ibrahim Ahmadoc said.
The fire continued to smoulder into Monday, but was threatening neither oil and gas infrastructure nor people’s lives, Azerbaijan’s emergency ministry said.
It said the fire had been caused by a mud volcano.
About 400 of the world’s estimated 1,000 mud volcanoes are in Azerbaijan. They spew both mud and flammable gas.
Nicknamed the “Land of Fire”, Azerbaijan is famed for its its rich oil and natural gas reserves. Explorer Marco Polo wrote about the fires in the 13th Century.
“The mud volcanoes in Azerbaijan are some of the biggest and most violent in the world. There are, on average, several large mud volcano eruptions each year, and many of them can have big fires,” Dr Mark Tingay, a geophysicist at the University of Adelaide, wrote on Twitter.
The explosion follows a fire on the ocean surface in the Gulf of Mexico, which was extinguished on Friday after burning for more than five hours.
The blaze was blamed on a gas leak from an underwater pipeline
Lots of entrained natural gas in the mud causing hat flame. You can see how it behaves when the tongues of flame burn out.
Amazing.
Lots of good resources going up in flames..... Sad.
“hat flame” :)
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