Japan's volcanic Nishinoshima Island, has grown Twelve Times Bigger Since it's second peak Popped Up Two Years Ago

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New Island Grows Twelve Times Bigger Since Popping Up Two Years Ago

 

Eric Mack,

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A NASA image from 2014

It’s not exactly a Pacific beach resort just yet, but the Japanese Coast Guard reports that a volcanic island that first popped up in the middle of the ocean two years ago has already grown to twelve times its initial size.

Molten rock cooled by the ocean first poked out of the water in November, 2013, when it was initially spotted next to island Nishinoshima, which it eventually grew to engulf.

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The eruption of Nishinoshima with the new island joining with the original Nishinoshima island, seen on December 26, 2013. Image: Japan Coast Guard

Via  WIRED

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April 6 2014 7:45 AM

A New Volcanic Island Swallows Its Older Sister

By Phil Plait

 

Tens of thousands of years ago, an undersea volcano a thousand kilometers south of Tokyo reached a milestone: Its peak reached the surface of the Pacific Ocean. It became an actual island. For millennia it slept, but in the 1970s a series of eruptions grew the island, which was named Nishinoshima. It was tiny, just a couple of hundred meters across.

But then there were a series of eruptions just south of the island in November 2013, in a still-submerged part of the volcano. This created a second peak, which poked through the water’s surface to become a new island just a few hundred meters from Nishinoshima.

That wouldn’t last: The new island grew as the volcano continued to erupt, and just before New Year’s Day 2014, the new island grew so big it actually connected to the old island. Now there is just one … and it’s still erupting, as you can see in this lovely image taken by the Landsat 8 satellite on March 20, 2014:

 

The new volcanic Nishinoshima Island, seen FROM SPAAAAACE. Click to hephaestenate.

Photo by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, usingLandsatdata from the USGSEarth Explorer.

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