A volcanic eruption has created a new island off Japan
An undersea volcano erupted off Japan three weeks ago, providing a rare view of the birth of a tiny new island, but experts say it may not last very long.
The unnamed undersea volcano, about half a mile off the southern coast of Iwo Jima, which Japan calls Ioto, started its latest series of eruptions Oct. 21.
Within 10 days, volcanic ash and rocks piled up on the shallow seabed, rising above the sea surface.
By early November, it became a new island about 328 feet in diameter and as high as 66 feet above the sea, according to Yuji Usui, an analyst in the Japan Meteorological Agency’s volcanic division.
Volcanic activity has increased near Ioto, and similar undersea eruptions have occurred in recent years, but the formation of a new island is a significant development, Usui said.
Japan’s prime minister takes part in a televised earthquake disaster drill on the 100th anniversary of a temblor that devastated the Tokyo region.
Volcanic activity at the site has since subsided, and the newly formed island has somewhat shrunk because its “crumbly” formation is easily washed away by waves, Usui said.
He said experts are still analyzing the development, including details of the deposits. The new island could survive longer if it is made of lava or something more durable than volcanic rocks such as pumice.
“We just have to see the development,” he said. “But the island may not last very long.”
Undersea volcanoes and seismic activities have formed new islands in the past.
Japan’s fishing and seafood industry is under threat as warming sea temperatures spur changes in marine life behavior and migration patterns.
In 2013, an eruption at Nishinoshima in the Pacific Ocean south of Tokyo led to the formation of a new island, which kept growing during a decade-long eruption of the volcano.
Also in 2013, a small island surfaced from the seabed after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake in Pakistan. In 2015, a new island was formed as a result of a monthlong eruption of a submarine volcano off the coast of Tonga.
Of about 1,500 active volcanoes in the world, 111 are in Japan, which sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.
Iwo Jima was the site of some of the fiercest fighting of World War II, and the photograph taken by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal of a flag-raising atop the island’s Mt. Suribachi on Feb. 23, 1945, came to symbolize the Pacific war and the valor of the U.S. Marines.
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