Report by Prashasti Kulkarni
In October, a new island appeared less than a mile away from Iwo Jima (an island in Japan where the American and Japanese armies fought a battle during World War 2). The island was formed due to a volcanic eruption that began on October 21st. The eruption went on for a while, and the island began making an appearance on October 30th and was seen in pictures captured by the Maritime Self-Defense Force of Japan on November 1st.
According to a volcanologist from the University of Tokyo, the eruption happened due to the accumulation of magma beneath the volcano, which was located under the ocean’s surface. When the buildup of magma increased, the volcano erupted, broke through the ocean’s surface, and that, along with some of the dried magma, caused the formation of a new island. Reportedly, the same volcano has erupted several times prior to this, but they all took place beneath the surface of the ocean, unlike this one.
This is not the first case of an island being formed by a volcanic eruption. A lot of the Hawaiian islands were also formed due to similar phenomena, but since it was a very long time ago, people weren’t present to see it. A recent case of a similar island formation was of the Nishinoshima island formed due to the eruption of the volcano Nishinoshima, also located in Japan, in the year 2013. The eruption went on for nearly a decade, while eruptions in that area usually last a month.
The new island remains unnamed for now, but is officially recognised as part of the Ogasawara Island chain. The volcano continues to erupt and may make the island slightly larger over time. Currently, the new island is around 100 meters in diameter.
Featured Image: European Space Agency