VOLCANIC ISLANDS MERGE IN PACIFIC OCEAN, SAYS NASA
WASHINGTON: A volcanic island in the Pacific Ocean has merged with its neighbour to form one landmass, NASA scientists say. The merged island is a result of eruptions on the seafloor that have spewed enough material to rise above the water line. In November 2013, a seafloor volcano in the western Pacific Ocean spewed enough material to rise above the water line. The new island, or “niijima” in Japanese, sprouted just 500 meters from Nishino-shima, another volcanic island that had last erupted and expanded in 1973-74, NASA said. Four months later, the new and the old are now one island, and the volcanic eruption shows no sign of abating. On March 30, the Operational Land Imager on the Landsat 8 satellite captured an image of Nishino-shima, depicting the extent of the new island. PTI