Emerging Landmass Joins the Japanese Archipelago
A new island emerges off Japan's Iwo Jima in the Pacific Ocean, marking the latest addition to the world's landforms
An unnamed island offshore the Japanese island of Iwo Jima in the Pacific Ocean has emerged as the world's most recent addition. According to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), this landmass resulted from a volcanic eruption beneath the sea.
On November 1, the country's Maritime Self-Defense Force captured images documenting the emergence of the island from the ocean. The photographs depict a minor volcanic eruption that propelled a gloomy ash cloud above the diminutive island, which has now become a constituent of the Ogasawara Island chain.
The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) has been documenting volcanic activity in the region since the previous year. However, the island-forming eruption on October 30 was officially confirmed by the Earthquake Research Institute at the University of Tokyo. Setsuya Nakada, a distinguished professor of volcanology at the University of Tokyo, stated to the Japan Times this week that an accumulation of magma had been occurring beneath the waters for a considerable period before it eventually erupted.
The island is located approximately 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) south of mainland Japan and only a kilometer away from Iwo Jima, which was the site of intense battles during World War II in the Pacific.
In the battle, US Marines faced a Japanese garrison consisting of tens of thousands of troops. The conflict resulted in the death of over 7,000 Americans and 22,000 Japanese soldiers.
