Stunning social media videos erupted from the northern coast of Colombia on Feb. 25, when a mud volcano exploded, shooting flames high into the sky and prompting evacuations, local officials reported.
Mud volcanoes are "unusual, but fascinating," Michael Manga,a professor of Earth and planetary scienceat the University of California, Berkeley, told USA TODAY.
The Colombian fountain of mud, flames and smoke erupted on Feb. 25 at 6:20 p.m. local time, the community of San Juan de Urabá posted on its official Facebook page. The community is in the northwest corner of Colombia, near the Caribbean coast, about 150 miles southwest of Cartagena and 150 miles north of Medellin.
Social media videos showed people running into the streets as bright orange flames and smoke spewed into the sky.
Although not a common occurrence, many hundreds of mud volcanoes occur on land, including in the United States, said Manga, who studies them. Many more are found under the sea. They are also sometimes called geothermal springs.
What is a mud volcano?
Mud volcanoes are "a window into the processes that happen underground," Manga said, including how sediments get buried and how hydrocarbons are made.
Geological structures beneath the ground can trap hydrocarbons such as petroleum and methane, Manga told USA TODAY in an email. Gases that become trapped can find a a way to the surface, escape and ignite and flames erupt when those trapped gases catch on fire.
Mud volcanoes can erupt around the globe
The fluids moving up from below ground carry mud with them, creating the mud volcano as they escape, according toa post on The Conversationin December 2022 by Michael R. Hudec, a senior research scientist in The University of Texas at Austin's economic geology bureau.
"The idea is similar to a car tire containing compressed air," Hudec wrote. "As long as the tire is intact, the air stays safely inside. Once the air has a pathway out, however, it begins to escape. Sometimes the air escapes as a slow leak – in other cases there is a blowout."
Videos of the Colombia eruption appeared to show a crack in the ground some distance from the flames with bystanders walking around for a closer look. Damage and cracking was reported on the road and nearby residents and onlookers were evacuated for safety, according to San Juan de Urabá's Facebook posts. No injuries were reported, but the city's drinking water supply was suspended.
San Juan de Uraba officials stated in its social media posts that the cracks were being evaluated, and advised residents to avoid travel between the community and San Juancito. "We continue to work and articulate actions to address the situation and protect our population," the page stated.
"Once the gases are incinerated, the activity will decrease and the system will enter into rest again," Colombian officials told local residents, based on the Facebook translation of the city's post.
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Where are mud volcanoes found?
Mud volcanoes typically occur in basinsthat also produce oil and gas, Manga said. They can occur both naturally and can be triggered by oil and gas exploration. He said it wasn't immediately clear what triggered the Feb. 25 event.
The greatest concentration of mud volcanoes is found in Azerbaijan, Manga said. The country is on the Caspian Sea where Europe meets Asia.
"Within the USA, there are mud eruptions in southern California, Yellowstone, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Marianas," he said.
Mud volcanoes are also found on the Southeastern shore ofCalifornia's Salton Sea.
Amud eruption in Sidoarjo in Indonesia, sometimes known as Lusi, took place in 2006 and it continues to erupt, Manga said. The ongoing eruptions have displaced more than 40,000 people, according to NASA. And it has caused more than $4 billion in losses, Manga said.
Scientists still debate what started that eruption, and whether it was triggered by drilling for natural gas, or by an earthquake.
There's no obvious evidence that earthquakes triggered the Colombian explosion, Manga said.
Colombians use thermal mud found in the region for therapeutic purposes, believing the mud has health benefits. Local residents use them as "inexpensive recreational and wellness centers," according to a group of international scientists who publisheda study in Catena, Elsevier's journal of soil science and geology, in 2024.
Microorganisms in thermal mud produce a variety of compounds with therapeutic properties, including antioxidants, anti-inflammatories, and analgesics, the study found. It concluded the mud has been used to treat "a variety of conditions, including arthritis, psoriasis, and eczema, and these treatments are usually safe and well tolerated."
On the other hand, Manga said active eruptions such as the one in Indonesia do have long-term health effects on local communities.
Dinah Voyles Pulver covers climate change, wildlife and the environment for USA TODAY. Reach her at dpulver@usatoday.com or @dinahvp on Bluesky or X or dinahvp.77 on Signal.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Mud volcano spews into Colombian sky