Tor Zawar is a fissure vent volcano in western Pakistan and the only recent volcano in Pakistan. Its first, and so far only, eruption occurred in January 2010.

Tor Zawar
Tor Zawar Location of Tor Zawar in the Province of Balochistan Show map of Balochistan, Pakistan Tor Zawar Location of Tor Zawar in Pakistan Show map of Pakistan
Highest point
Elevation	2,237 m (7,339 ft)
Coordinates	30°28′45″N 67°28′30″E
Geography
Location	Pakistan
Geology
Mountain type	Fissure vents
Last eruption	January 2010

Morphology

Tor Zawar is a group of closely spaced fissure vents on a non-volcanic mountain in a tectonically active region between the Bibai and Gogai thrust faults (Global Volcanism Program), which is in the Ziarat region near the village of Wham.

2010 eruption

An eruption in the region on January 29, 2010 surprised volcanologists because no previous volcanic activity had ever taken place there before. A local scientist reported that fissures opened, then emitted gases for a little while before the eruption began. The eruption produced a small spatter cone and a lava flow that only travelled 8.2 metres, and caused some minor damage. The lava is trachybasalt and basaltic andesite.

The eruption was preceded by a 60 km deep earthquake on 27 January. The calculated source depth of the lava is consistent with an origin at this depth in the asthenosphere.[1]

Disputed status

The origin of the lava is disputed.[2] Kerr et al. (2010) interpreted the rocks as having formed from molten magma that had been created by partial melting in the mantle followed by eruption from a volcanic fissure vent.[1] Kassi et al. (2012) disputed a mantle origin for these rocks, instead suggesting that the magma source was near-surface sedimentary rock that had been melted close to electricity pylons that had been struck by lightning, in a process similar to the formation of fulgurites[3] (that are formed when lightning melts sand to produce natural glass).

Initially, the Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program included Tor Zawar in its database of volcanoes, citing the paper by Kerr et al. (2010).[4] As of December 2017^[update], however, the Global Volcanism Program excludes Tor Zawar from its volcano database[5] and excludes the 2010 event from its eruption database.[6]

References

• GVP Monthly Report: March 2012
• Global Volcanism Program (GVP)

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