World’s newest island forms near Japan after volcanic eruption

The world’s newest island, which hasn’t been named, formed off the coast of Japan as a result of an undersea volcanic eruption on October 30, according to the country’s meteorological agency.

Its incredible rise from the ocean was documented in real-time in pictures and video.

The breathtaking photos, taken by Japan’s Maritime Self-Defence Force on November 1, show an eruption that sent a dark cloud of ash into the sky above the tiny island, which is the newest member of the Ogasawara Island chain.

Awe-inspiring footage shared by local news agency The Asahi Shimbun Company also showed grey plumes of debris rocketing into the air as the tiny island spilt out from underneath the eruption.

Red-hot magma was flung into the sky while the ocean lapped up against the island’s newly created shore.

The island sits about 1200 kilometres south of mainland Japan and a kilometre from Iwo Jima, an island that was a major battleground during World War II.

It consists mainly of rock masses formed north of the eruption site and could grow larger if volcanic activity continues, according to the Earthquake Research Institute at the University of Tokyo.

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

“In an earlier stage, a vertical jet of black colour, debris — which is a solidified magma — and water gushed upward,” Professor Nakada said after he flew over the site.

“Since November 3, the eruption started changing and the emission of volcanic ash continued explosively.”

The eruptions began off the coast of Japan earlier this year and are ongoing.

New islands have been confirmed in the area before but usually submerge within a few months due to the harsh conditions of the sea.