A month-long eruption of an underwater volcano in the South Pacific has created a new island located about 65 km from the region’s main island of Tongatapu. Measuring 1.3 km long and 800 metres wide, it is called Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai, meaning “small pieces of rock on top of each other”.
A submarine eruption began here by 19 December 2014 and ended by 28 January 2015. Hunga Tonga and Hunga Ha’apai are small islands situated on the rim of a submarine caldera known by the names of the two islands (Hunga Tonga and Hunga Ha’apai) . The 2014-2015 surtseyan eruption added a circular area of land over 100 m in elevation at a spot S of and about midway along Hunga Ha’apai Island’s length. The new island initially grew as an isolated third new island, but subsequently connected and joined with Hunga Ha’apai. The area of new land surface eventually reached about 1.5 to 2 km in diameter. The new island also grew to come as close a few hundred meters from Hunga Tonga Island. The eruption issued dense ash plumes that generally rose less than about a kilometer in altitude but preliminary estimates on the associated higher, ash poor steam plumes rose to 7-10 km altitude.
Picture Credit : Google