David Sim
October 27, 2016
IBT
For the first time, Japanese researchers have landed on a new island that sprung up in the Pacific Ocean during a volcanic eruption, swallowing its neighbouring island. What was once a tiny dot in the middle of the Pacific Ocean has grown to 12 times its original size.
Nishinoshima was a rocky outcrop barely 650 metres (710 yards) long and 200 metres (240 yards) wide. It was enlarged in 1974 when a set of eruptions created a new section, but then came the big one: In November 2013, a nearby seafloor volcano erupted, spewing enough material to rise above the waterline and forming a new island just 500 metres from Nishinoshima. Four months later, the new and the old islands had merged, becoming one island.
For the first time, Japanese researchers have landed on a new island that sprung up in the Pacific Ocean during a volcanic eruption, swallowing its neighbouring island. What was once a tiny dot in the middle of the Pacific Ocean has grown to 12 times its original size.
Nishinoshima was a rocky outcrop barely 650 metres (710 yards) long and 200 metres (240 yards) wide. It was enlarged in 1974 when a set of eruptions created a new section, but then came the big one: In November 2013, a nearby seafloor volcano erupted, spewing enough material to rise above the waterline and forming a new island just 500 metres from Nishinoshima. Four months later, the new and the old islands had merged, becoming one island.
Aerial photograph of Nishinoshima in 1978National Land Image Information Color Aerial Photographs, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism
20 November 2013: An erupting undersea volcano starts to form a new island off the coast of Nishinoshima Japan Coast Guard
20 November 2013: Material from the undersea eruption has begun to form a tiny island off the coast of Nishinoshima Japan Coast Guard
21 November 2013: An erupting undersea volcano starts to form a new island in the southern Ogasawara chain of islands Kyodo/Reuters
The new island is pictured merging with the old island on 24 December 2013 Japan Coast Guard
The new island dwarfs the old island, as seen on 26 December 2013Japan Coast Guard
15 April 2014: There is no longer any distinction between the two islands Japan Coast Guard
17 September 2014: Volcanic activity continues on the enlarged island Japan Coast GuardResearchers from Japan's environment ministry, who swam the final distance from a small boat to the island to minimise biological contamination, were the first people to step foot on the island in recent history. Researchers landing on the island collected rock, plant and insect samples for ecological research. They also observed the first colonisation of the island by masked gannets, a large seafaring bird.
One of their main goals, the head of the research party said, was to learn how volcanic islands are created. "We hope to gather those different lava samples, and accumulated volcanic ash, to study the process of growth of a volcanic island," said Minoru Takeo, professor of volcanology at Tokyo University. Researchers also planted several seismic monitors around the uninhabited island to record
future geological activity.
An aerial view of the Pacific island of Nishinoshima on 20 October 2016Kyodo/Reuters
The crater and cinder cone are seen on 18 October 2016 Japan Coast Guard
Japanese researchers conduct surveillance activities for the first time since its eruption in 2013 Kyodo/ReutersNishinoshima, also called Rosario or Niijima, is located nearly 1,000 kilometres south of Tokyo and is part of the Ogasawara archipelago. The island is so remote it takes nearly a day by boat to get there from Ogasawara, the closest inhabited island. Studying volcanoes is high priority in Japan which lies on the "Ring of Fire", a horseshoe-shaped band of fault lines and volcanoes around the edges of the Pacific Ocean that is home to more than 100 active volcanoes.
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