Central Tonga News Today

Satellite images from NASA show the new island growing rapidly as smoke and ash billow from volcanic activity under the sea's surface.

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Earth and its distinct terrains have been formed over the course of millions of years. Sometimes an entire mountain range can be formed due to earthquakes caused by the movement of tectonic plates while at other times, a volcanic eruption can build new islands. While we may have been a few million years late to observe how the Himalayan mountain range or the Andes had formed, scientists have discovered a 'baby' island in the Central Tonga islands, which is currently in its infancy.

NASA Earth Observatory captured the image of the island with the help of Operational Land Imager 2 (OLI-2) on Landsat 9 on Sept 14.

The Home Reef volcano began erupting on September 10 and carried on until at least Friday. The new island it formed has grown to 24,000 square metres – but may not last for long.

Just eleven hours after the volcano began to erupt, a new island had emerged above the water's surface, says NASA, which captured images of the nascent island with satellites.