Satellite radar images captured between July 2023 and May 2024 showed that the summit of Iran’s Taftan volcano rose by nine centimetres, a team led by PhD student Mohammadhossein Mohammadnia reported in Geophysical Research Letters. The ground inflation ended the assumption that Taftan was extinct, indicating renewed unrest after roughly 710,000 years of silence, Live Science noted.
Taftan is a 3,940-metre stratovolcano near Iran’s border with Pakistan. Its twin summits emit water vapour, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen fluoride, and about 20 tonnes of sulfur dioxide each day. Residents of Khash, 50 kilometres away, said the rotten-egg odour intensified in 2023, and some witnessed brief puffs of smoke and ash early in 2024.
“We believe that changes in gas permeability or unseen magmatic inflows caused the accumulation of pressure about 500 metres below the summit,” wrote the study’s authors. Their modelling placed the source of uplift at 490 to 630 metres beneath the surface, far shallower than the main magma reservoir more than 3.5 kilometres down. Rainfall and regional earthquakes were ruled out as triggers, and deformation appeared on both flanks of the volcano.
“There's no sign of an eruption coming soon, but the data showed clear movement beneath the surface and new pressure building below the rock,” said volcanologist Pablo González, according to Live Science. He described Taftan as a “zombie” volcano and warned, “At some point, it will have to release this pressure—either violently or gently.”
Southeastern Iran’s rugged Makran range hosts insurgent activity and cross-border smuggling routes, making on-site monitoring difficult; Taftan lacks permanent GPS receivers and seismometers. Researchers therefore rely on satellite images and occasional gas-sampling trips. The new study urged Iranian authorities to establish monitoring networks, update hazard maps, and prepare mitigation plans. “Taftan should no longer be considered extinct but rather dormant; that change in status means we have to watch it, not fear it,” González said.
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