Asian Surveying & Mapping
Breaking News
Neo Space Group Completes Acquisition of UP42 from Airbus Defence and Space
Neo Space Group (NSG) has officially finalized its acquisition...
Launch of Australia’s 1st orbital rocket, Gilmour Space’s Eris-1, delayed again
Update for 6:15 p.m. ET on July 1: Gilmour Space...
SAASST, UAE Space Agency strengthen scientific partnership
SHARJAH- Prof. Hamid M.K. Al Naimiy, Director of the...
Shubhanshu Shukla to speak to students and ISRO scientists this Friday
Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla will interact with school students...
ISRO hands over 10 advanced technologies to Indian firms in major push for space commercialisation
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has transferred ten...
DIGIPIN Launched: India Embraces Geospatial Precision in Digital Addressing
IIT Hyderabad (IITH), in partnership with the Department of...
HAL to build, market Isro’s SSLV in landmark deal
New Delhi, Jun 20: In a historic move for...
Taiwan developing space capabilities for all-weather imaging
TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Taiwan is advancing its space...
Honda hails successful test of reusable rocket as it looks to get into the space business
Tokyo — Japan's second-biggest carmaker, Honda, has successfully tested...
China’s space program provides larger platform for broader international cooperation
BEIJING -- Experts from China's manned space program said...

September 23rd, 2022
Home Reef Erupts

image

In the southwest Pacific Ocean, a seafloor ridge that stretches from New Zealand to Tonga has the highest density of underwater volcanoes in the world. On Sept. 10, 2022, one of them awoke. In the days since, the Home Reef seamount in the Central Tonga Islands has repeatedly oozed lava, ejected plumes of steam and ash, and discolored the surrounding water.

Eleven hours after the eruption began, a new island rose above the water surface. The Operational Land Imager-2 (OLI-2) on Landsat 9 captured this natural-color view of the young island on Sept. 14, 2022, as plumes of discolored water circulated nearby. Previous research suggests that these plumes of superheated, acidic seawater contain particulate matter, volcanic rock fragments and sulfur.

On Sept. 14, researchers with Tonga Geological Services estimated the area of the island to be 4,000 square meters (1 acre) and the elevation to be 10 meters (33 feet) above sea level. By Sept. 20, the island had grown to cover 24,000 square meters (6 acres). The new island is located southwest of Late Island, northeast of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha‘apai, and northwest of Mo‘unga‘one.

Home Reef sits within the Tonga-Kermadec subduction zone, an area where three tectonic plates are colliding at the fastest converging boundary in the world. The Pacific Plate here is sinking beneath two other small plates, yielding one of Earth’s deepest trenches and most active volcanic arcs.

Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey.