What do you know about mud volcanoes?!?!?

I have been following the 'strange happenings' in the Louisiana area and am aware of the mud volcanoes that are in the Gulf.......I did a bit of googling and got a basic overview of a mud volcano and what it does.....(a couple of links below for those who are curious themselves)

My question is......Is that all a mud volcano will ever do? Are there any indications that these types of volcanoes can ever 'mutate' or 'grow' into something more powerful? Or are they perhaps just the indications that something more powerful is lurking under the surface of these? (Just thinking of the ones at Yellowstone)


Thanks for any input!

ATHENS, Georgia -- Everyone knows of volcanoes and their ability to do anything from burying cities to changing the climate. Less-well-known are mud volcanoes, vents bubbling gases and a slurries of fine solids suspended in liquids. The most familiar of the latter are the gurgling and flapping vents in places such as Yellowstone National Park. [link to www.underwatertimes.com]


Mud volcanoes are another source of deep sea methane. These form where gases and liquids are excreted out of the sediments. They are much cooler than igneous volcanoes where lava flows, but still have important impacts on the surrounding environment. Mud volcanoes are a source of methane found in every ocean around the world. These sea floor volcanoes release fluids and gases into the surrounding waters of the deep ocean. The released gases can have methane content as high as 99%. The rising methane accumulates in the surrounding sea floor mud and some escapes as free gas into the hydrosphere, and eventually into the atmosphere [11]. Unfortunately, knowing how to incorporate mud volcanoes into the global methane budget is not easy because we do not know how many mud volcanoes exist in the ocean [12].
[link to oceanlink.island.net]

Last Edited by Beso on 09/26/2013 11:25 AM