| Earth performed the ultimate magic trick last week, making an island appear out of nowhere. The new island is a remarkable side effect of a deadly Sept. 24, 2013 earthquake in Pakistan that killed more than 500 people. Satellite images snapped a few days after the earthquake-triggered island emerged offshore, near the town of Gwadar, reveal that the strange structure is round and relatively flat, with cracks and fissures like a child's dried-up mud pie. A satellite mapped the muddy hill's dimensions, which measure 576.4 feet long by 524.9 feet wide. Aerial photos suggest the gray-colored mound is about 60 to 70 feet high. Gwadar is about 230 miles from the earthquake's epicenter. The magnitude-7.7 earthquake was probably centered on the Chaman Fault line. Geologists think the new island, named Zalzala Koh, is made of erupted mud volcano, spewed from the seafloor when either trapped gases escaped or subsurface water was violently expelled. |