Science Ticker Earth

Quake forms island in Arabian Sea

FROM NOWHERE An aerial photo shows the Arabian Sea's new island, which formed after an earthquake on September 24.

Pakistan's National Institute of Oceanography/NASA Earth Observatory

By Ashley Yeager

A new island has sprung to the surface of the Arabian Sea. The island sits just off the southern coast of Pakistan and formed after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake rocked the western part of the country on September 24. The quake probably shook loose methane gas and water trapped in the sea sediments and forced part them to the water’s surface. The process has formed islands in the Arabian Sea in the past, according to a recent study in Nature Geoscience.

About Ashley Yeager

Ashley Yeager is the associate news editor at Science News. She has worked at The Scientist, the Simons Foundation, Duke University and the W.M. Keck Observatory, and was the web producer for Science News from 2013 to 2015. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a master’s degree in science writing from MIT.

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