Oil spots found in Caspian Sea

A group of oil spots coming from underground sources have been found in the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea in late May and early June, RIA Novosti reports.

The spots have a width of 50-150 meters and a length of 300-3,000 meters. They were found in 3 areas of the north-western part of the Tyub-Karagan Peninsula (Mangyshlak).

Andrey Ivanov, senior scientist of the Institute for Oceanology of Shirshov of the RAS, said that small spots of oil have been occurring since the start of satellite monitoring in 2007. Similar pollution was found in 2010-2011.

Boris Golubov, senior scientist of the Institute for Dynamics of Geospheres of the RAS, said that no sources of oil pollution have been found yet, despite drillings. It could have been caused by earthquakes with a magnitude of 4-5.6 points in the north-western part of Azerbaijan on the border of Dagestan.