China's largest group of mud volcanoes found

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 ◆ China's largest group of mud volcanoes found

Chinese geologists recently discovered a hilly area with 36 erupting mud volcanoes on the northern slope of Mount Tianshan in northwest China.

The mud volcanoes, in Baiyanggou Town of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, spread in an area of 0.5 square km. The large stone has a diameter of 1.6 meters and the smallest the size of a bean.

Mud, natural gas and petroleum can be seen spewing out of volcano craters. Some have as many as 60 eruptions per minute.

"It is the largest group of mud volcanoes ever found in China,"said Xiong Heigang, vice-president of the Resource and Environment Institute of Xinjiang University.

Mud volcanoes have been found in the United States, Mexico, New Zealand and Taiwan, but they can't match the ones in Xinjiang in terms of number.

Xiao Jing, a local tourism official, said the most marvelous thing is that people can observe the eruptions just beside the volcanoes, an unimaginable experience for many.