A volcanic eruption gave birth to a new island, and a NASA satellite saw it from space (photo)
Landsat-9 saw the island that formed off the coast in a volcanic eruption at the end of Oct. 30. In this comparison, the image on the left, acquired on 18 October 2023 by Landsat-9, shows the area around Iwo Jima as it looked like before the eruption started. In the image on the right from 3 November, the new tiny island can be seen about one km off the southern coast of Iwo Jima. (Image credit: ESA/USGS) A NASA satellite has spotted a newly formed island off the coast of Japan that experienced a fiery birth at the end of October. T he joint NASA/U.S. Geological Survey satellite Landsat-9 saw the island rise from the sea off the coast of Iwo Jima island, part of the Volcano Islands archipelago in south Japan, on Nov. 3. The island was born 750 miles (1,200 kilometers) south of Tokyo between 12:20 and 12:35 local time on Oct. 30 when blisteringly hot magma fell into the ocean and exploded, creating chunks of rock several feet long more than 160 feet (50 meters) into the air, according