Azerbaijan’s Mud Volcanoes are in the list of world’s natural wonders

The voting for most amazing world's natural wonders is coming to its final stage. A list of 28 finalists is now known and includes Azerbaijan's Mud volcanoes. An initial voting round from Dec. 2007 to July 2009 led to 77 nominations from a much larger list. Those were narrowed to 28 by a panel of experts chaired by Federico Mayor, a former head of UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Voting is open from now through 2011. About 1 billion people are expected to participate, making it likely the most democratic participatory voting exercise in the history of the planet. And why not? It's up to you. You can vote here. Results will be announced in 2011.

The list of 28 finalists is below:

1.    Amazon BOLIVIA, BRAZIL, COLOMBIA, ECUADOR, FRENCH GUIANA, GUYANA, PERU, SURINAME, VENEZUELA
2.    Angel Falls VENEZUELA
3.    Bay of Fundy     CANADA
4.    Black Forest     GERMANY
5.    Bu Tinah Shoals     UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
6.    Cliffs of Moher     IRELAND
7.    Dead Sea     ISRAEL, JORDAN, PALESTINE
8.    El Yunque     PUERTO RICO
9.    Galapagos     ECUADOR
10.    Grand Canyon     UNITED STATES
11.    Great Barrier Reef     AUSTRALIA, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
12.    Halong Bay     VIET NAM
13.    Iguazu Falls     ARGENTINA, BRAZIL
14.    Jeita Grotto     LEBANON
15.    Jeju Island     KOREA (SOUTH)
16.    Kilimanjaro     TANZANIA
17.    Komodo     INDONESIA
18.    Maldives     MALDIVES
19.    Masurian Lake District     POLAND
20.    Matterhorn/Cervino     ITALY, SWITZERLAND
21.    Milford Sound     NEW ZEALAND
22.    Mud Volcanoes     AZERBAIJAN
23.    Puerto Princesa Underground River     PHILIPPINES
24.    Sundarbans     BANGLADESH, INDIA
25.    Table Mountain     SOUTH AFRICA
26.    Uluru     AUSTRALIA
27.    Vesuvius     ITALY
28.    Yushan     CHINESE TAIPEI

Mud Volcanoes are national treasure of Azerbaijan

To protect mud volcanoes the president of Azerbaijan signed a decree in 2007 to establish a natural reserve at Absheron peninsula. The decree also envisaged immediate actions to stop any construction works in the area concerned. There are around 800 mud volcanoes known in the world, and nearly half of them are located in the territory of Eastern Azerbaijan. Reserve territory included most distinctive volcanoes (Toragay, Kanizadag, Otmanbozdag): 400 m high, active and located close to Caspian sea shore near main highways and settlements.

Mud volcanoes are our national treasure and we have taking care of them and preserve for future generations. There are very useful to people. Firstly, volcano is a super-deep well that provides very valuable information on what’s going on deep below Earth, helps us to locate precious natural resources. But volcanoes are useful not just to geologists.

The mud from volcanoes is an efficient medicine against many diseases. Volcano clay could be used for production of bricks, expanded clay, etc. and is widely used in construction. Volcano breccias contains a number of valuable chemical elements.

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