INVESTIGATING MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF NAFTLIGE MUD VOLCANO IN GOLESTAN PROVINCE,EASTERN PART OF THE CASPIAN SEA

Mud volcanoes are geomorphological phenomena and there is a limited volume of knowledge about them. Output of a composition of water, mud, and gas forms the mud volcano phenomenon. Geographical distribution of mud volcanoes indicates their relationship with pressured, rapid and thick sedimentation, which is seen in both tectonically active and inactive zones. Naftlige mud volcano is located in the southwest of the Caspian Sea and west of Gomishan Wetland in Golestan Province, Iran. Since no study has ever been conducted with a specific focus on mud volcanoes, field and laboratory studies were carried out for the first time to overcome the shortage of library resources. The objective was to determine the composition of emerging mud and study its morphometric and geomorphic features so that there would be a method for identifying and introducing some unknown aspects of this mud volcano. Therefore, three samples of this mud volcano which were taken on 27 Apr., 2012 were tested and analyzed using X‐ray diffraction and X‐ray fluorescence techniques to determine the mineral and chemical composition. The results of this analysis showed that, in these three samples, silicon oxide with the chemical formula SiO₂ had 40.88% volatile materials, 19.15% H₂O Loss on Ignition (LOI) and 13.97% calcium oxide. Quartz, calcite and albite formed the three main phases of minerals.