New Volcanic Island Emerged In Just 11 Hours In The Pacific Between The Tonga Islands And New Zealand
In just 11 hours, a new island formed between Tonga and New Zealand following the eruption of the Home Reef submarine volcano. Here is the first satellite photo.
Between the archipelago of Tonga and New Zealand there is an oceanic ridge (the Tonga-Kermadec ridge) characterized by the very high presence of submarine volcanoes . One of these, the Home Reef , woke up on September 10, 2022 , giving life after 11 hours (that is, in less than half a day ) to a new volcanic island in the southwest Pacific. It formed southwest of Late Island, northeast of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai (already famous for its January 2022 eruption) and northwest of Mo'unga'one. Initially it was not clearly visible due to the presence ofdebris and volcanic fragments in the water but within a few days the ocean was clear again: the first high-definition satellite image of the new emerged island was obtained on September 14, 2022 .
The photo was taken by the Landsat 9 satellite using the Operational Land Imager-2 (OLI-2), a remote sensing instrument capable of capturing images in the range of visible and infrared light.
Now that we have a clear picture of this new island, it is estimated that it has a surface area of 4,000 square meters – even if measurements updated to 20 September show an increase to 20,000 square meters – with a maximum height of around 10 meters at sea level. This is an island that probably won't have a very long life and could be swept away by an eventual eruption – the last island of the Home Reef, for example, survived only a year. In this regard.
