TH E
temporal
is l e The tale of Zalzala Jazeera
TH E
temporal
The tale of Zalzala Jazeera
REFERENCES
ABC RT News BBC News NY Times Pakistaniat The Huffington Post Earthquake Report The Indian Express US Geological Survey
TYPE-SET
Sensaway pro Gestalten Fonts National Klim Type Foundry
24–09–13
ZALZALA JAZEERA ROSE OUT OF THE ARABIAN OCEAN
The Temporal Isle
A New Land
On the 24th of September 2013 an earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Moment Magnitude Scale [M] struck the remote Southwestern Pakistani province of Balochistan at a depth of 20km. According to statements made by the National Disaster Management Authority as many as 780 people lost their lives whilst several hundred more were seriously injured in the catastrophe. In total 300,000 citizens have been affected across six of the nation’s districts and 21,000 houses have been destroyed leaving many homeless and without any basic supplies. A surprising consequence of the seismic activity was the appearance of an island 380km from the quakes epi-centre, dubbed ‘Quake Island’ by national media, which rose out of the Arabian Sea, approximately 30 minutes after the quake impact, several hundred metres off the Southern port city of Gwadar, along the Jhanda coastline. The isle, composed of sea bed sediments, mud and methane gases, is almost circular in form and measure approximately 175.5m on its long axis by 160m on the short axis [with a total land area of 22,726 sq m] and a varying height of 10 – 20m. The phenomenon has bewildered local residents with large crowds of spectators gathering on the shores to catch a glimpse of the land mass or travelling the short distance by boat to walk across the new land. The island has been affectionately entitled ‘Zalzala Jazeera’ by natives which directly translates as ‘Island Earthquake’.
A new ground erupted from the Arabian Sea, forcing it’s way to the surface with explosive force. The Quake Island was born, a land mass which had never before been seen by human eyes
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Global Reaction
The birth of this islet was a rare and captivating event galvanising the scientific community and prompting an instant global reaction. The world’s media were quick to give widespread coverage to the story, eclipsing the tragedy caused by the initial quake. Zalzala Jazeera became an object of wonder, captivating imaginations and raising extensive public interest. In light of it’s sudden and dramatic conception religious zealots quickly pounced on the story quoting bible passages and branding the isle an ‘end of days’ apocolyptic prophesy. People began to deliberate; how the island had inexplicably formed and what it’s future would be?
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News of the island’s formation sparked lively debate. Some in the scientific community doubted the authenticity of such a rare and unlikely phenomenon claiming the island to be an elaborate hoax
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Formation Theory
The quake occurred in the Makran subduction zone, a vast and complex tectonic feature stretching from Pakistan to Iran where three plates meet [the Indian, Arabian and Eurasian]. The seabed near the Makran coast has vast deposits of gas hydrates, or frozen gas having a large methane content. These deposits lay compressed under a sediment bed that is 300 – 800m thick. It is known that the disaster was an oblique-strike-slip event, which indicates both vertical and horizontal movement between plates. As the Arabian plate moves beneath its Eurasian counterpart sediments containing water and methane are compressed and pressurised. This creates heat activating inflammable gases in the seabed, and forcing semi-consolidation of a lot of sand and mud into rock, which then expand blasting through the fissures in the Earth’s crust, propelling the seabed to the surface. News of the island’s formation sparked lively debate in the geological community, raising a range of hypothesis suggesting that the island could be a hill, landslide, fault scarp or even a hoax [fault scarps mark vertical displacement along a fault between tectonic plates]. Leading volcanologists at the US Geological Survey believe that the isle’s rough and cracked surface indicates that the land mass was formed as a result of the sea bed rising. The most commonly accepted theories deliberate that the island was formed by the movement and shaking of these plates, during the recent earthquake. In turn this would build immense pressure in the sediment and gases trapped beneath barriers in the sea floor. Pressure may then have been released rupturing the hard rock casing, folding sedimentary layers into ridges and forcing sediment, natural methane gas and rock to the surface in a explosive mud-volcano. The process by which water-saturated, unconsolidated sediments are transformed into a substance that acts like a liquid is called liquefaction. The formations of such mud-volcanoes are a known consequence of strong seismic events and this explanation seems the most possible in light of evidence that the Gwadar coastline is already scattered with as many as 80 known active mud-volcanoes both onshore and at sea.
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Documentation
Numerous images have been circulating the Internet since the island’s inception. Aerial studies have produced a series of highresolution satellite images allowing scientists to map the island’s dimensions accurately. NASA’s Advanced Land Imager: Earth Observer-1 satellite was reported as being the first to retrieve images of the island. This was quickly followed by the Pleiades Earth-observing system, consisting of two satellites, which can resolve features on the ground as small as 50cm across. The imager, primarily a French national space project, is owned and built by Astrium Europe’s largest space initiative.
latitude
25.18118 24–09–13 21:29:47 pkt
Locals to the Gwadar coastline first spot Zalzala Jazeera within minutes of the quake impact. Natives rush to the isle by boat to set foot on the new land and claim the territory for their home nation. The island is littered with deceased sea creatures and visitors are baffled by the sound of hissing emanating from the land beneath them.
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Temporality
Unfortunately, despite its most puzzling appearance, the scientific community now commonly agree that the island will not exist one year from its initial conception. Leading geologists explain that a mud-volcano will only remain for as long as the high pressure from sediment exists. Though some have been known to sustain for many years it is thought that the pressure that initially propelled the sea bed to the surface in this event will lose intensity causing the island to subside. However, even if the island’s pressure has not lessened in intensity a year from now it’s fine-grained sedimentary muddy matter will quickly start to erode due to the repeated motion of the Arabian Sea and weathering from the oncoming monsoon season.
longitude
62. 28879 24–09–14 Approx. ≈
As soon as 7 or 8 months from its initial creation Zalzala Jazeera will most likely have completely vanished from view beneath the water’s surface. It’s only remaining signature will be an imprint on the ocean seabed. The island’s limited mortality makes it an interesting temporal phenomenon and an object of great interest to many keen geologists and global observers.
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Most interestingly Zalzala Jazeera will only exist for a matter of months before vanishing again into the abyss. The nature of it’s temporality elevates it to a status of wonderment
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An Unlikely Event?
Despite being a relatively rare spectacle the appearance of this isle is in fact not a totally unique occurrence. According to NASA’s Earth Observatory this land mass is not the first to have surfaced along the 700 kilometre long Jhanda coastline over the past century. Prior to this event, in December 1945, an 8.1 magnitude earthquake formed a collection of three small islands in the Arabian Sea, almost exactly in the same position as the most recent seabed movement. One of these islands was named Zalzala Koh, or ‘Earthquake Hill’. A recent survey by scientists in Germany has shown that the 1945 quake set off the release of free methane from sediments, releases that continue in the same region to this day. However, Zalzala Koh only remained above sea level for a matter of weeks before being submerged by oceanic erosion. The near precise proximity of these completely unrelated events triggered speculation is some locals that the same island, Zalzala Koh, had once again returned from the depths of the Arabian Sea. Overall the formation of the most recent isle is the fourth recorded in this region of Pakistan and the third of it’s kind in the last 15 years. In 1999, and again in 2010, islands have appeared within 1km of the coast of Ormara, just below the delta of the Hingol river. The seismic activity in the coastal seabed has caused gases to make conduits inland, leading to the formation of a range of mud volcanoes that have sat along the Makran coast for centuries. Chandragup, one of the best known mud volcanoes of the region, is located just inland from the Jhandra coast and a little way off the Hingol river. This mud volcano serves as a holy site for Hindus, as the dwelling place of the deity Babhaknath. In April each year Hindu pilgrims make offerings here before proceeding to the nearby cave temple of Hinglaj [the ‘Nani temple’], the shrine of the goddess Devi. It is said that the liquefied mud spewing from these volcanoes carry potent healing powers and many flock to these sites to cure skin diseases. Pakistan has as many as 80 known and active mud volcanoes, all of which are situated in the Balochistan province. They range in height from between 800 – 1,550 feet, with the largest crater measuring 450 feet in diameter. It has been reported in that past that high magnitude volcanoes have in this region of Pakistan have been responsible for wreaking havoc and destruction. Some inland volcanoes have been shook so violently that the gases emitted have become ignited and flames have risen several hundred feet above them into the air. Whilst others have been capable of emitting large quantities of scolding hold sediment for hours on end.
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Potentially Volatile
Not enough is currently known about the island to assess whether or not it is in fact safe for local residents to be walking across it’s surface. Current speculation in the geological community is that the island may not be as dormant as it initially appears. These worries have been compounded by a video leaked onto Youtube depicting scores of local residents clambering over the island, dropping litter, digging up stones and holding a match to one of the fissures sparking a blaze on the isle’s surface. Consequently the flames of which they then struggle to extinguish, even when dousing with water buckets full of sea water. It has been reported that shortly after the island’s emergence it had a strong stench of gas emanating from it’s rocky surface. Scientists have confirmed that methane, a highly explosive gas, is leaking from the fissures and crevices of the land mass at levels toxic to humans and loud enough for a distinct hissing sound to be heard. Shallow pools can be seen bubbling with the potentially volatile and inflammable gas.
Methane may have been created through the actions of bacteria on organic matter, produced as a by-product and trapped in the sediments as free gas molecules. The Arabian Sea is home to large quantities of methane clathrates, icy cage-like structures of water molecules within methane molecules. Immediately after the island’s formation there was speculation that it may be these hydrates, not free methane, that was being released. Whether this harmful gas has contributed to the masses of deceased aquatic life strewn across the land’s exterior is yet to be proven. Even more worrying are the images shown of unsuspecting tourists smoking on the island’s seething facade. Further images show what looks like a group of Pakistan military, in fluorescent orange life vests, planting a flag on the island and chanting a buoyant mantra. Clearly seeking to claim the land for their homeland before any other nation can stake claim to it.
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Despite the island’s surface emanating potentially toxic gases, people have flocked to witness this spectacle in the knowledge that such an opporunity may not present itself again for many years
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Lost Forever
Me quia eatibusapic tempora island volor audiandam arit rescia voluptae porrora temque pa dolorupta que preste maio. Neque consequia lost sima voluptasped maiorempero inversperspe nobit rempor soluptasped que reprate moluptas et sink beneath abores as aliqui doluptae et alique nobitatet ad qui ande nimposa nditas rest audit, never consed ut quo officit laut iur re nonsequ once again perhaps ocean isolated incident submerged unanswered
Phenomenon
unlikely natural disaster spectacle possible? temporal
wonderment object momentary forever fleeting lifetime isle Zalzala Jazeera catastrophe speculation activity
tectonic
fragile and subject to change erode weathering monsoon one year less locals return.
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Arabian Sea signature imprint
mortality
movement rare vanish
land mass never
quake. abyss
slowly time momentary. once more
event sink perhaps no longer
never seen
again existence.
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