Article Archive for September 2013
Islands Can Arrive (and disappear) Overnight
Pakistan’s recent deadly 7.8 magnitude earthquake had a surprising twist – an entire island rose out of the ocean.
I think it looks bigger in the photo than it really is, because it is only 600 meters from the shoreline:
The earthquake was so powerful that it caused the seabed to rise and create a small, mountain-like island about 600 metres off Pakistan’s Gwadar coastline in the Arabian Sea. [ABC Australia]
“It’s an oval shaped island which is about 250ft to 300ft (76-91m) in length, and about 60 to 70ft above the water,” he said. It has a rough surface, much of which is muddy and some parts are mostly made up of fine- to coarse-grained sand. [BBC]
So if an island can come into rapid existence, presumably one can disappear just as easily, like Atlantis allegedly did.
