Eruption from the Wandan Mud Volcano, Taiwan.

A mud volcano beneath a temple in the village of Wannei, near Kaohsiung in Pingtung County, Taiwan, erupted at about 6.00 am local time on Friday 8 April 2022, breaking a window and inundating the interior of the temple with mud. The Wandan Mud Volcano typically erupts 1-3 times a year from several different locations in Wannei and neighbouring villages. This is the second eruption beneath the Huang Yuan Sheng Tien (皇源聖殿) temple within a year, following an eruption in October 2021. 

 

(Top) A mud volcano erupting beneath the Huang Yuan Sheng Tien (皇源聖殿) temple in Wannei village, Taiwan, on 8 April 2022. (Bottom) Damage to the exterior of the building following the eruption. Taiwan English News.

The eruption happened about 90 minutes before a Magnitude 5.7 Earthquake at a depth of 10 km, roughly 30 km to the south of Taiwan, and it is likely that the two events were connected. Mud volcanoes are the result not of hot magma rising up from deep within the Earth, but of liquids or gasses being released suddenly from rocks into soft sediments, resulting in dramatic upwelling of mud and gas. The mud volcanoes of southern Taiwan are strongly associated with motion on the subduction zone beneath the island, although it is not generally possible to prove a connection between events, and on this occasion the Taiwan Central Weather Bureau has cast doubt on the idea that there is a direct connection, because of the time and distance between the two events.

 

The approximate location of the 8 April 2022 Taiwan Earthquake. USGS.

Taiwan has a complex tectonic setting, lying on the boundary between the Eurasian and Philippine Plates, with the Eurasian Plate being subducted beneath the Philippine Plate in the South and the Philippine Plate being subducted beneath the Eurasian in the East. Subduction is not a smooth process even in simple settings, with plates typically sticking together as pressure from tectonic expansion elsewhere builds up, then suddenly breaking apart and shifting abruptly, causing Earthquakes.

The motion of the tectonic plates beneath Taiwan. The University of Memphis.

Eruptions from other vents of the Wandan Mud Volcano are often controlled by igniting them (the gas being released is methane), which reduces the activity of the eruption, and the amount of mud and slurry produced. However, people are (understandably) reluctant to do this when eruptions occur beneath the temple, and the eruption is generally allowed to run its course naturally. This can be a problem, as these eruptions can produce significant amounts of mud, which if allowed to run freely are likely to smother crops in nearby fields.

 

Mud within the interior of the Huang Yuan Sheng Tien (皇源聖殿) temple following an eruption on the Wandan Mud Volcano on 8 April 2022. Pingtung Residents/Facebook.

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