After volcanic eruption: NASA satellite images show how new island is formed

Created: 09/27/2022, 12:47 p.m

An image of the new landmass formed as a result of the volcanic eruption.

© NASA / dpa

A new island is emerging in the Pacific state of Tonga.

It is questionable whether it will remain so.

NASA has now provided photos of the new landmass.

Nuku'alofa/Munich - In the South Pacific country of Tonga, a new island was created by the eruption of an underwater volcano.

The volcano, dubbed Home Reef, has been ejecting lava flows since Sept. 10, the Tonga Geological Survey said on Facebook on Sunday.

Eleven hours after the start of the eruption, an approximately 4,000 square meter island formed above the water surface about 250 kilometers north of the main island of Tongatapu, it said.

New island in the Pacific: land mass formed after volcanic eruption

In the days after the eruption, the island continued to grow rapidly, according to measurements from the Geological Survey.

Ten days after the start of the eruption, the area of ​​the island had already increased eightfold.

It rose 15 meters out of the water, was about 211 meters long and 218 meters wide.

The island can be seen in photos from NASA.

According to the US space agency Nasa, it is uncertain whether the newly created island will remain.

Islands created by underwater volcanoes often have short lifespans, the agency said in a statement.

As early as 1984 and 2006, after eruptions of Home Reef, islands with cliffs of up to 70 meters had formed, which then disappeared again.

NASA released images of the volcanic eruption via Twitter.

New island in the Pacific: Not the first new landmass to form near Tonga

The Tonga archipelago, located about 2,300 kilometers northeast of New Zealand in the Pacific, includes around 170 islands.

More than a quarter of the 107,000 inhabitants live in the capital Nuku'alofa.

At the turn of the year 2014-2015, a month-long eruption of the Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano 65 kilometers north of Nuku'alofa also created a new, two-kilometer-long island.

In another massive eruption in early 2022, the island disappeared again.