New island off the coast of Japan

A new island has recently emerged off the coast of Iwo Jima island, part of the Volcano Islands archipelago in south Japan. An undersea volcano started erupting at the end of October 2023 and, since then, volcanic ash and rocks have piled up to form the new island, which is now also visible from space.

In this comparison, the image on the left, acquired on 18 October 2023 by Landsat-9, shows the area around Iwo Jima as it looked like before the eruption started. In the image on the right from 3 November, the new tiny island can be seen about one km off the southern coast of Iwo Jima.