Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force
The new island is seen in a photo taken Nov. 1 by Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force.
Tokyo CNN –
The world’s newest island has risen from the sea off the coast of the Japanese island of Iwo Jima in the Pacific Ocean.
The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) told CNN that the unnamed island was formed by an undersea volcanic eruption.
Its rise from the sea was documented in images taken on November 1 by the country’s Maritime Self-Defense Force.
The photos show a small eruption sending a dark cloud of ash across the tiny island, now part of the Ogasawara island chain.
The JMA has been recording volcanic activity in the region since last year, but the University of Tokyo Earthquake Research Institute confirmed that the island-forming eruption occurred 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 accumulating underwater for some time before it finally broke the surface.
The island is about 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) south of mainland Japan and one kilometer from Iwo Jima, the island that saw some of the fiercest battles of World War II in the Pacific.
U.S. Marines fought tens of thousands of Japanese stationed there in a battle that killed more than 7,000 Americans and 22,000 Japanese soldiers.