A major earthquake has hit the southwestern coast of Pakistan, and amidst all the destruction and chaos, a surprising phenomenon has risen to the surface. An island has appeared literally out of nowhere just a few hundred yards off the coast of the port city of Gwadar.

Unfortunately, there has not been much time to marvel at the new island as many Pakistanis continue to suffer in the aftermath of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake. It struck the Baluchistan province at around 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

"The number of dead from the earthquake has reached 208 now. The injured are over 382," said Asad Gilani, a senior administration official for the province."The rescue teams are working to recover dead bodies and injured, but our priority is to shift injured to hospitals as soon as possible."

Baluchistan is Pakistan's largest, least-populated, and poorest province. A state of emergency has been declared, and many of the area's telecommunications and medical facilities have been destroyed. It is being reported that around 90% of the housing in the Awaran district was lost to the earthquake.

A bright spot and peculiarity among the tragedy, however, has been the formation of a new island just off the coast. It consists only of mud and rocks, and is around 100 feet tall and 200 feet wide. Apparently, island formation is a phenomenon that can occasionally accompany an earthquake.

"When such a strong earthquake builds pressure, there is the likelihood of such islands emerging," said Zahid Rafi, director at Pakistan's National Seismic Monitoring Center. "That big shock beneath the earth causes a lot of disturbance."

Locals have already started flocking to the island to explore it surface. Though it is stable for now, officials note that there is a good chance that the island will not be around for too long.

"If it is just mud, it's possible it will disappear soon," Rafi noted. "In 1945, two mud islands emerged in the same area, and they later disappeared. It there's a rock beneath it, or it appeared because of the movement of a big rock, then it may stay."