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New Islands Appear

Timble2

Imaginary Person
Joined
Feb 9, 2003
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In a Liminal Zone
Mu resurfacing, or is this R'lyeh popping up


Mariners report new island in South Pacific

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- A new volcanic island has risen from the South Pacific near Tonga, according to reports from two vessels that passed the area.

The crew of the Maiken, a yacht that left the northern Tongan islands group of Vava'u in August, reported on their Web log on August 12 that they saw streaks of light, porous pumice stone floating in the water -- then "sailed into a vast, many-miles-wide belt of densely packed pumice."

They posted photos of huge "pumice rafts" that they encountered after passing Tonga's Late island while sailing toward Fiji.

"We were so fascinated and busy taking pictures that we plowed a couple of hundred meters into this surreal floating stone field before we realized that we had to turn back," wrote a crewman identified only as Haken.

The next day they spotted an active volcanic island, Haken wrote.

He said they could see the volcanic island clearly. "One mile in diameter and with four peaks and a central crater smoking with steam and once in a while an outburst high in the sky with lava and ashes. I think we're the first ones out here," he reported.

There was no official confirmation of a new island, either from Tonga's Ministry of Lands or the Tonga Defense Service.

Separately, fishing boat captain Siaosi Fenukitau reported seeing the volcanic island, the Matangitonga news Web site reported.

Richard Wunderman, editor of the Washington-based Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network, said "a large pumice raft presumably from Tonga has been sweeping across Fiji, and we are trying to learn about its origins."

A previous eruption in the area generated a small island and similar fields of floating pumice, he said.

Pumice rafts drifted to Fiji in 1979 and 1984 from eruptions around Tonga, and some were reportedly 30 kilometers (19 miles) wide, the Matangitonga reported.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/1 ... index.html
 
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CNN were a bit slow on the uptake on that one...

Good pictures :yeay:
 
OK. So the crew of a yacht sailing the South Pacific has had an island rise up out of the sea in front of them? Not that I'm nervous or anything but was there any 'cyclopean architecture'?
 
This Nature article from a couple of weeks later suggested the island was already shrinking in size and might not last (above surface) much longer.
Submarine eruption bares volcanic island in Tonga

Newly born island may only last a month before disappearing beneath waves.

The Pacific Ocean kingdom of Tonga has a new island, but its size seems to be dwindling by the day.

In August, a passing yacht reported seeing floating chunks of pumice near the underwater Home Reef volcano. Then an entire new island emerged (lower left in the image), around 1.5 kilometres across, and complete with four peaks and a central crater. Satellite images have helped monitor the new land as it rises and recedes.

Images obtained on 12 and 14 November from NASA's Terra satellite, for instance, suggest that the island has shrunk in surface area by about a third since early October. Small volcanic lakes on the island have also disappeared.

Home Reef last erupted in 1984, when it created an island of roughly the same dimension — which also later vanished beneath the waves. Alain Bernard of the Free University in Brussels says he expects the new island to be gone within a month.
SOURCE: https://www.nature.com/articles/news061120-8
 
As of November 2008, the island was gone (submerged / eroded below the water's surface).

Until November 2008 no observations of the Home Reef island had been reported since a visit by Scott Bryan and colleagues in mid-February 2007 (BGVN 32:04), when a small pumice mound less than 5 m above sea level was present at low tide. The island had been constructed during an explosive eruption in August 2006 (BGVN 31:09, 31:10, and 31:12). When Bryan returned on 20 November 2008 the island was no longer present.

SOURCE: https://volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn=243080
 
New island, North Pacific rather than south

World’s newest island forms in Japanese archipelago

The world’s newest island has risen from the sea off the coast of the Japanese island of Iwo Jima in the Pacific Ocean.

Its rise from the ocean was documented in pictures taken by the country’s Maritime Self-Defense Force on November 1.

The photos show a small eruption sending a dark cloud of ash above the tiny island, which is now part of the Ogasawara Island chain.
The JMA has been recording volcanic activity in the area since last year, but the Earthquake Research Institute of the University of Tokyo confirmed the island-forming eruption took place on October 30.

Setsuya Nakada, a professor emeritus of volcanology at the University of Tokyo, told the Japan Times this week that magma had been building under the water for some time before it finally broke the surface.

The island sits about 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) south of mainland Japan and a kilometer from Iwo Jima, the island that saw some of the fiercest battles of World War II in the Pacific.
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so if the new island is in Japanese territorial waters does that mean they get to claim it immediately?
 
It’s right next to Iwo Jima which is Japanese - a long way from Russia. Probably not much can be done with it even if it continues to grow. Iwo Jima is volcanic itself & growing, & has no permanent residents apart from a defence force. It’s also tiny & in the middle of nowhere.

Iwo Jima apparently translates as Sulphur Island.
 
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It will erode away soon.

(But Surtsey is still there, isnt it?)
 
It will erode away soon.

(But Surtsey is still there, isnt it?)
Yeah, volcanic islands can have a solid heft to them even if they're only a year old.

Anak Krakatau hasn't collapsed due to erosion after all. :D
Yeah....it sometimes violently explodes. Collapse due to erosion? no.
 
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