Growth of Nishino-shima Volcanic Island

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July 4, 2014JPEG

July 4, 2014TIFF

More than 6 months after it broke the surface of the Pacific Ocean, Nishino-shima (once called Niijima) continues to grow. The new land surface is now several times larger than original Nishino-shima, which formed in 1973–74. The islets merged in December 2013.

This natural-color image was collected by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 on July 4, 2014. It shows a plume of ash, steam, and other volcanic gases streaming from a crater in the center of the island.

NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, using Landsat data from the USGS Earth Explorer. Caption by Robert Simmon.

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Ash and steam stream from a remote Japanese island.

Instrument:: Landsat 8 — OLI

A new island forms near Nishinoshima Volcano

Volcanic activity along the western edge of the Pacific “Ring of Fire” gave rise to a tiny island in November 2013, and it has been expanding since then. Located in the Ogasawara Islands, part of the Volcano Islands arc, the new islet sits about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) south of Tokyo.