New island surfaces in Pacific Ocean as underwater volcano erupts

A new baby island has surfaced in the Pacific Ocean hours after an underwater volcano erupted; but the bad news is it may not stay or long.

The new island appeared hours after the Home Reef volcano located in the Central Tonga islands started oozing lava and ejecting plumes of steam and ash on September 10.

On September 14, researchers with Tonga Geological Services estimated the area of the island to be 4,000 square meters and the elevation to be 10 meters; by September 20, the island had grown to cover 24,000 square meters.


Islands created by submarine volcanoes are often short-lived though they occasionally persist for years, according to NASA Earth Observatory which reported the event.

An island created in 1995 by eruption from nearby Late‘iki Volcano remained for 25 years, while another one created by a 12-day eruption in 2020 washed away after two months.

The sea floor ridge that stretches from New Zealand to Tonga in the southwest Pacific Ocean has the highest density of underwater volcanoes in the world, said NASA Earth Observatory

Home Reef sits within the Tonga-Kermadec subduction zone, where three tectonic plates are colliding. “The Pacific Plate here is sinking beneath two other small plates, yielding one of Earth’s deepest trenches and most active volcanic arcs,” their statement said.