Fukutoku-Okanoba Eruption: NASA Shares Incredible Satellite Images of Japan’s Underwater Volcano From 80 Feet Underneath the Surface

Images of Fukutoku-Okanoba, the underwater volcano of Japan, have recently been shared by NASA as it fired a plume of gas and steam from underneath the surface.

A Mail Online report specified that the incredible satellite images of the underwater volcano's shooting were from 80 feet underneath the surface and up to the stratosphere's lower boundary.

Images were taken by Himawari 8, the Japanese geostationary satellite, and the sensor of NASA on the Landsat 8 moments following the August 13 eruption.

Volcanic ash rose above sea levels at 54,000 feet during the explosion and kept rising even days following the initial eruption.

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Extremely Large Eruption

According to the Japan Coast Guard, the eruption was extremely large that it "could not be observed in close proximity." It also called for a warning on vessels navigating, as well as flying aircraft in the area.

After two days from the occurrence, and when the smoke vanished, the coast guard was able to catch a glimpse of a new island formed from the eruption. This has been labeled "Niijima" or a new island.

The Coast Guard has seen patches described in this report as milky blue water in the Pacific Ocean, roughly three miles north of South Iwo Jima Island over the last 10 years.

Such water comes from the submarine volcano that erupted from underneath the surface. However, on August 13, the trail of smoke broke free, and it traveled into the sky at 10 miles.

Fukutoku-Okanoba Leaving a Mark on Sea Surface

In a statement, meteorologist and a specialist in hazards to aviation Andrew Tupper, from the Natural Hazards Consulting said, what was extraordinary about this recent eruption is that "it went straight from being a submarine" occurrence to an eruption cloud that reached the stratosphere's lower boundary.

That is not extremely common for this volcano type, explained Tupper. He added, they normally observe low-level plumes coming from submarine eruptions.

This Japanese underwater volcano left its mark on the sea surface by forming a new parentheses-shaped island outline of the caldera of the volcano.

In addition, the volcano, in the past, has created ephemeral ash and pumice islands that eroded not long after they were formed, and, according to NASA, it is not clear how long the new formation is going to last.

The appearance of the New Islands

Previous additions of Fukutoku-Okanoba to the Pacific seascape have proven temporarily, although islands that initially appeared in 1904, 1914, and 1986 have since vanished to erosion.

Whether Niijima survives or not, it will depend a lot on how long the eruption will last and, by extension, what rock types the tiny landmass would end up being covered in.

The new islands' appearance is definitely not without precedent. For instance, a Smithsonian Institution report specified that in 2013, an eruption created a new island that eventually merged with nearby Nishinoshiba to form a mass that temporarily looked like "Snoopy."

As scientists from the University of Tokyo shared via a study that came out in The Geological Society of America, the said eruption started with Surtseyan-type eruptions and a cone's formation in a shallow sea.

They said, when a tiny islet was found by the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force in November 2013, its size was 150 by 80 meters.

Report about the Fukutoku-Okanoba eruption is shown on GeologyHub's YouTube video below: