The new island of Iwo Jima shown in a photo taken by the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force on the 1st (local time). /Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force
The world’s newest island has emerged off the coast of Iwo Jima, Japan. It was created by the accumulation of rocks ejected from volcanic activity, but the possibility of it continuing to remain is unknown.
According to CNN and Japanese local media on the 9th (local time), the Japan Meteorological Agency announced that a new island was created as an underwater volcano erupted on Iwo Jima in the Ogasawara Islands. This island was formed about 1km off the southern coast of Iwo Jima, about 1,200km south of the capital, Tokyo. The Korea Meteorological Administration announced that it had been confirmed that the erupted rocks had piled up to form a land mass of about 300m. It is said that the shape continues to change due to wave erosion. This is the first time new land has been identified off the coast of Iwo Jima.
The appearance of this island floating out of the sea was recorded in a photo taken by the Maritime Self-Defense Force on the 1st. Photos showed the volcano erupting, with dark clouds of ash and smoke billowing above a small island that became part of the Ogasawara Islands.
According to the Meteorological Administration, an eruption occurred off the southern coast of Iwo Jima, with volcanic tremors detected every few minutes starting around the 21st of last month, and the Maritime Self-Defense Force reported that a water column mixed with black silt rose up to a height of 100 meters. The University of Tokyo’s Earthquake Research Institute confirmed that the explosion that formed the island occurred on the 30th of last month. According to the institute, the island could grow larger if volcanic activity continues.
Setsuya Nakada, professor emeritus of volcanology at the University of Tokyo, said in an interview with the Japan Times, “Magma has been erupting underwater for a while around Iwo Jima, and the magma hardened into rock below the surface. Then, after the explosion on October 30, a pile of magma formed. “It rose to the surface and a new island was formed,” he said. He also said, “In the early stages, black silt and water rose upward,” and “The eruption pattern began to change on November 3, and volcanic ash discharge continued explosively.”
Steam erupting from around the new island of Iwo Jima. /Capture of the University of Tokyo Earthquake Research Institute website
The main sediments that form this land are made up of soil including pumice (a porous stone formed when lava erupted from a volcano suddenly cools), so there is a possibility that it will flow away and disappear in the future. Eruption activity has been gradually decreasing since around the 4th of this month, and the volcanic movement detected during the eruption is also currently decreasing.
However, Professor Nakada predicted that if volcanic activity continues, there is a possibility that the island will remain without eroding, and there is even a possibility that the island may merge with Iwo Jima in the future. A Meteorological Agency official told the Mainichi Shimbun, “If it turns into an eruption spewing lava, there is a possibility that (the island) will remain.”
A similar eruption was recorded on Iwo Jima in July last year, and other eruptions occurred in June and October. Japan’s Geographical Information Institute analyzed earlier this year that the island’s area has increased approximately 1.3 times over the past nine years as it has risen due to active volcanic activity.
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2023-11-09 16:08:00
