In a region near Tonga, an underwater volcano has given rise to a new island
A new island in the Pacific Ocean near Tonga originated from an underwater eruption within 11 hours. In just a few days, its size increased to an area of around 24,000 square meters. The discovery was documented on September 14 by the Landsat 9 satellite, of NASA and Usgs, and by Sentinel-2 of the Earth observation program Copernicus of the European Space Agency.
The images obtained by the two satellites show the newborn island, generated by the submarine volcano Home Reef, belonging to an oceanic ridge that extends from Tonga to New Zealand, from which a long trail of vapors and ash is leaving. The waters that surround it have a greenish color due to the volcanic material that has ended up in the sea.
The Home Reef volcano awakened between 9 and 10 September after about 16 years emitting lava, ash and plumes of steam. After 11 hours from the beginning of the eruptions, the new volcanic island emerged which extended for 4,000 square meters and was about 10 meters high, and then continued to grow in the following days until it reached an extension of 24,000 square meters on September 20.
This type of island is generally short-lived. The last island generated by the same volcano in 2006 was eroded by waves in about a year, other islands, such as the one formed by the Late’iki volcano in 2020 disappeared after just two months. Others, like the one created by the same volcano in 1995, lasted 25 years
- New volcanic island in the Pacific ocean, was born in 11 hours (ansa.it)
