A spectacular event occurred as a NASA satellite discovered the emergence of a newly formed island off the coast of Japan in late October, marking an explosive birth.
Landsat-9, a joint project between NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey, captured the extraordinary sight of the island rising from the sea near Iwo Jima island, part of the Volcano Islands archipelago in south Japan, on November 3.
According to the University of Tokyo, the island was born from a massive eruption on October 30, during which scorching hot magma descended into the ocean, resulting in explosive bursts of rock, some as long as several feet and reaching over 160 feet into the air.
University of Tokyo researchers stated, “The eruption seems to have started on October 21, 2023. The location of this eruption is almost the same as the 2022 eruption location and is thought to indicate the resumption of magma activity on Iwo Jima.”
Underwater eruptions caused the ocean’s surface to break at two locations and formed a 330-foot wide island around half a mile from Iwo Jima. The discolored water surrounding the island was filled with very porous pumice rocks formed by the frothy cooling and hardening of lava with high water and gas content discharged from the volcano.
Landsat-9 spotted the island from its position 438 miles above Earth on November 3, comparing it to previous observations on October 18 where the island was absent, highlighting the rapid emergence of the new landmass.
Amidst the flurry of surprises, it was the aircraft of a Japanese newspaper, Mainichi Shimbun, that first witnessed the early stages of this underwater eruption in the southern part of the Izu-Ogasawara arc in the Pacific Ocean.
The newfound island site has been a site of frequent underwater eruptions recently, signifying the rapid ascent of the caldera volcano, a large depression formed by volcanic eruptions and collapses, as confirmed by researchers from the University of Tokyo.
