The Taftan volcano hasn’t done much for the last 700,000 years. No eruptions, no big drama, just a mountain sitting in southern Iran, leaking sulfur into the air. But new satellite data suggests it may be showing signs of life again.
Scientists noticed something strange happening at the top of Taftan. Over ten months, the ground near its summit crept upward by about nine centimeters (3.5 inches). That might not sound like much, but for a mountain that’s been geologically silent since the Stone Age, it’s definitely enough to pique scientists’ attention.
Taftan sits near the city of Khash in a remote, rocky stretch of southeastern Iran. The area is hard to access and politically unstable, so researchers rely on satellite imaging instead of on-site instruments. When locals began posting about sulfur smells and gas plumes last year, scientists took another look. Using radar images from the European Space Agency, they found that the volcano’s surface was swelling.
“It has to release somehow in the future, either violently or more quietly,” said volcanologist Pablo González in an interview with Live Science. He said there’s no sign of an eruption coming soon, but the data shows clear movement beneath the surface and new pressure building below the rock.
Scientists Say a “Dead” Iranian Volcano Is Starting to Stir After 700,000 Years
The research team traced the activity to a depth of around 500 to 600 meters, suggesting that gases may be shifting through the rocks or that small pockets of magma are moving. Taftan still vents sulfur through fumaroles at its summit, but this is the first evidence of something happening deeper down. It’s also the first indication that it might not be done evolving.
Technically, volcanoes are considered extinct if they haven’t erupted in the last 11,700 years. That made Taftan a geological fossil, at least until now. Its new behavior reclassifies it as dormant, meaning the system beneath it still has life left.
“This study doesn’t aim to produce panic,” González said. “It’s a call to pay attention.”
The last time Taftan erupted, humans hadn’t even figured out farming. Seven hundred thousand years later, it might be thinking about making itself known again.
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