BEAUTIFUL BRAND NEW ISLAND WONDER

A 4.5 billion-year old mother gave birth to a new baby a little over 2 years ago and its growth has been remarkable. The newbie, known as Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai, is a volcanic island located in the remote Southwest Pacific, nestled between two other islands in Kingdom of Tonga.

The submarine volcano pushed through the surface of the sea, sending ash plumes as high as 30,000 feet (9 km) into the sky, diverting flights. When the ash finally settled in January 2015, the newborn island, with its 400-foot (120-meter) summit emerged -- it was visible to satellites in space. NASA and CNES satellites have given us an unprecedented view of the island’s formation, growth, and erosion.

There are other new islands that have been emerging in the Pacific near Japan, but most newly erupted islands come and go within a few years, at most, due to erosion. Only three volcanic islands have survived for over 150 years. Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai is the first of its kind to erupt and grow since the island of Surtsey, off the coast of Iceland, was born over 53 years ago.

Dr. Jim Garvin Chief Scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and Mars expert studied Surtsey decades ago. It propelled him to lead the development of Mars exploration, including the Mars Exploration Rovers, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the Mars Science Laboratory. He believes that the systems that created these volcanic islands are cosmically related to those that created land masses on Mars.

Garvin and his team not only witnessed this rare birth, but have been able to monitor the island’s development, watching it change over time, without washing away.

While the initial mass above sea level eroded very quickly over the first three to six months of the island’s life, changing daily, it then it leveled off and materials redeposited.

Check out the DigitalGlobe WorldView-2 image of HTHH from January 15, 2017, with superimposed coastline boundaries. The yellow line indicates the outline of the original island just after the end of volcanic construction in January 2015. The red outline is the coastline geometry as of early 2016. You can see the development of accreted sandy isthmus regions to the northeast and west of the core.

This overlay of CSA Radarsat-2 Spotlight SAR images (SLA19 geometry) shows the island on March 16, 2015 (in blue) and on March 5, 2017 (in red). The large isthmus to the northeast has been forming -- it is made up of re-deposited (accreted) sediments derived from the erosion of the southern coastal region.

Two French explorers who happened to be sailing past the islands collected some of the very first images and samples of the interior island.

The combined observations, satellite images, samples and three-dimensional topographical maps suggest that warmed seawater interacted with ash after the eruption, chemically altering the fragile rock into a tougher material.

This island may give us insights into if and how life formed on Mars. Scientists are currently running detailed chemical analysis of the island rock samples that will hopefully flesh out the story.

Check out this video to learn more about it and to watch the newbie island grow.

Explorer Ian Argus Stuart, Docastaway, spent 11 nights completely alone on the new island. The adventure travel agency offers wonderful trips to remote islands. Check them out!

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IMAGE CREDITS:

1. Image: Satellite view of clouds over Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai island. Courtesy of Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES).
2. Image: Eruption of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano as island is formed. Courtesy of NASA GSFC.
3. Image: Satellite view of newly formed Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai island. Courtesy of NASA GSFC.
4. Image: DigitalGlobe WorldView-2 image showing the development of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai. Courtesy of NASA GSFC.
5. Image: Satellite image showing shifting of the new island of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai. Courtesy of NASA GSFC, and the CSA Radarsat-2 Background Mission.
6. Image: Researcher stands on newly formed Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai island. Courtesy of NASA GSFC.
7. Image: Lagoon formed at Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai island. Courtesy of NASA GSFC.
8. Image: Black volcanic rocks and beach on brand new Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai island. Courtesy of Docastaway.
9. Image: Satellite view of newly formed Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai island. Courtesy of NASA/EPA.
10. Image: Black beach and mountain on brand new Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai island. Courtesy of Docastaway.
11. Image: Digital elevation model showing the topography of Iceland’s Surtsey island (left) and Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai (right). Courtesy of NASA.