[Dawn] A small island created in the Arabian Sea by the huge earthquake that hit southwest Pakistan has fascinated locals but experts say it is unlikely to last long.The 7.7-magnitude quake struck on Tuesday in Balochistan's remote Awaran district, killing more than 260 people and affecting hundreds of thousands.
Off the coastline near the port of Gwadar, some 400 kilometres from the epicentre, locals were astonished to see a new piece of land surface from the waves.
"It is not a small thing, but a huge thing which has emerged from under the water," Gwadar resident Muhammad Rustam told news agency AFP. "It looked very, very strange to me and also a bit scary because suddenly a huge thing has emerged from the water."
Mohammad Danish, a marine biologist from Pakistan's National Institute of Oceanography, said a team of experts had visited the island and found methane gas rising.
"Our team found bubbles rising from the surface of the island which caught fire when a match was lit and we forbade our team to start any flame. It is methane gas," Danish said on a local television news channel.
| I would have encouraged them to have a barbecue. And invite all their friends... |