KYODO NEWS VIA AP
This aerial photograph shows steam escaping from the waters off Iwoto Island, Ogasawara City in the Pacific Ocean, south of Tokyo, on Oct. 30. Near the steamer is a new island one hundred meters in diameter, formed by erupting rock. , according to Kyodo News.
TOKYO (AP) — An underwater volcano erupted off the coast of Japan three weeks ago, hinting at the birth of a small island, but experts say it may not last long.
The unnamed undersea volcano, located about 1 kilometer off the southern coast of Iwo Jima, which Japan calls Ioto, began its new round of eruptions on Oct. 21.
Over the course of ten days, volcanic ash and rocks accumulated on the shallow seafloor, and its tip emerged above the surface of the sea. In early November, a new island about 100 meters (328 feet) in diameter formed and emerged as much as 20 meters (66 feet) above the sea, according to Yuji Usui, an analyst with the Japan Meteorological Agency’s Volcano Division.
Volcanic activity is highest near Iwo Jima and similar underwater eruptions have occurred in recent years, but the formation of a new island is a breakthrough, Usui said.
Since then, volcanic activity at the site has waned and the new island has shrunk as its “brittle” formation is gently swept away by waves, Usui said.
He said experts were still analyzing the development, adding the main points of the deposits. The new island could be longer if it were made of lava or something more durable than volcanic rocks like pumice.
“We just have to look at the evolution,” he said. But the island may not last long. “
Submarine volcanoes and seismic activity have shaped new islands in the past.
In 2013, an eruption at Nishinoshima in the Pacific Ocean south of Tokyo led to the formation of a new island, which continued to grow after a decade of the volcano’s eruption.
Also in 2013, a small island resurfaced after a massive 7. 7 magnitude earthquake in Pakistan. In 2015, a new island formed after a month-long eruption of an underwater volcano off the coast of Tonga.
Of the approximately 1,500 active volcanoes in the world, 111 are located in Japan, which is located on what is known as the “Ring of Fire” of the Pacific, 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 AP photographer Joe Rosenthal of a flag raised atop the island’s Mount Suribachi on Feb. 23, 1945, has a symbol of the Pacific War and the U. S. Marines’ Pacific War Valor.
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