The world’s newest island is forming in the Japanese archipelago

Tokyo
CNN
—

The world’s newest island has emerged from the sea off the coast of the Japanese island of Iwo Jima in the Pacific Ocean.

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) told CNN that the unnamed island was formed as a result of an undersea volcanic eruption.

Its rise from the ocean was documented in photographs taken by the country’s Maritime Self-Defense Forces on November 1.

The images show a small eruption sending a dark cloud of ash over the small island, which is now part of the Ogasawara island chain.

The Japan Meteorological Agency has been recording volcanic activity in the area since last year, but the University of Tokyo’s Earthquake Research Institute confirmed that the eruption that formed the island occurred on October 30.

Setsuya Nakada, Professor Emeritus of Volcanology at the University of Tokyo, He told The Japan Times This week magma has been accumulating underwater for some time before finally breaking the surface.

The island is located about 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) south of mainland Japan and one kilometer from Iwo Jima, the island that witnessed some of the fiercest fighting of World War II in the Pacific.

US Marines fought tens of thousands of Japanese holed up there in a battle that left more than 7,000 Americans and 22,000 Japanese soldiers dead.