Speaking at a press conference, the department's director general Apichai Chawacharoenpan said what had been discovered should be described as undersea hills - pending further surveys.

The conference was held in response to university lecturer Anond Snidvongs' announcement that a team of Thai and German marine geologists had found four "submarine mud volcanoes" about 200 kilometres from Phuket.

Anond, who was present at yesterday's press conference, also backed down from his "mud volcano" theory. "At this point, we should call it an undersea muddy hill," he said.

According to Anond, a mud volcano was not volcanic mud, yet this technical term led some people to wrongly believe that it was. The lecturer said the team that found the undersea "hills" was planning to survey the site again early next year.

"Available information is rather confusing, so we plan to gather information and seek clarification," he said. The team hoped to have an answer by March.

An expert, Worawuth Tantivanij, said that, based on available information, it was very unlikely that the targets of the ongoing surveys would be mud volcanoes. But it was interesting to find the "hills" on the seabed and survey results would be good to know.

"Even if the discovered formations are not mud volcanoes, the findings will be useful. We can use the information to assess, if any, economic impacts and risks," he said.