Japan’s Nishinoshima Island, about a thousand miles south of Tokyo in the Pacific Ocean, has grown by five times due to the volcanic activity that began six months ago.
The Japanese broadcaster NHK showed aerial images with columns of smoke rising from 2 craters. One of them is spewing lava, cinders and black smoke every few seconds.
The uninhabited volcanic island measured 290 square meters before the eruption and now reaches 1.4 square kilometers.
Tokyo Institute of Technology Professor Kenji Nogami says lava is flowing from several locations other than the craters.
Steam is rising on the shore because lava comes into contact with seawater there. Nogami says high-temperature lava flows into the sea underneath the solidified surface, forming lines.
The first eruption occurred in November near Nishinoshima, a volcanic island of just 40 years old. A few days later the ejected lava made a new island emerge, Niijima, at 500 meters from Nishinoshima. In December, the Japanese Coast Guard announced that both island had merged. (PL)