“Undersea volcano spawns new Japanese island, but its lifespan uncertain”

A small new island was born off Japan’s coast after an undersea volcano erupted three weeks ago – but it may not last long.

The unnamed land mass, which is about 1km from the island of Iwo Jima and 1,200km from mainland Japan, formed early this month after volcanic ash and rocks piled up from the sea bed.

It measured about 100 metres in diameter and reached as high as 20 metres above sea level, according to Yuji Usui, an analyst in the Japan Meteorological Agency’s volcanic division.

But the island has shrunk as its “crumbly” surface is washed away by waves, Mr Usui added, and volcanic activity has subsided.

Volcanic rumblings are nothing new near Iwo Jima and similar eruptions have happened under the sea in recent years, but a new island is a significant development, Mr Usui said.

Experts are still analysing the land mass, including details of the deposits, and the island could stay intact for longer if it is made of lava or something more durable than volcanic rocks.

“We just have to see the development,” Mr Usui said. “But the island may not last very long.”

Iwo Jima was the site of some of the fiercest fighting of the Second World War, and the photograph of the flag-raising atop the island’s Mount Suribachi on 23 February 1945 came to symbolise the Pacific War.

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Of about 1,500 active volcanos in the world, 111 are in Japan, which sits along the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire.

It means it’s not the first time undersea volcanos and seismic activities have formed new islands, such as in 2013 when a new island kept growing during a decade-long eruption at Nishinoshima.

In the same year, a small island surfaced from the seabed after a massive 7.7-magnitude earthquake in Pakistan.

In 2015, a new island was formed as a result of a month-long eruption of