JAKARTA - After the underwater volcano broke down, dubbed Home Reef, a new island appeared above the southwestern surface of the Pacific Ocean. The newborn island was caught on NASA's satellite.
According to NASA's Earth Observatory, the volcano spewed lava, steam and ash on September 10. Just 11 hours later, the new island came to the surface.
The newly born island is located on the Home Reef sea mountain in the Central Tonga Islands, southwest of End Island in the archipelago. Its size increases rapidly.
On September 14, researchers at Tonga Geological Service estimated the island to be only 4,000 square meters, about 0.4 hectares. But by September 20, the island had grown to 24,000 square meters, or about 2.4 hectares.
NASA also added that islands created by underwater volcanoes are often short-lived, but sometimes can last for years or even decades.
Launching CNN International, Monday, September 26, the Home Reef Volcano reportedly still erupted on Friday last week. However, its activities do not pose a risk to the surrounding population, aka Vava'u and Ha'apai, namely two island groups in central Tonga.
For information, this is not the first time an island has been born. Previously, when Mount Berapi Home Reef experienced four-term eruptions in 1852 and 1857, small islands were formed temporarily after the two events.
The eruptions in 1984 and 2006 resulted in fanatical islands with cliffs as high as 50 to 70 meters. An island created by a 12-day eruption of nearby Volcano Late'iki in 2020 swept away after two months, while the previous island created in 1995 by the same volcano remained for 25 years.
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