A volcanic island in the Pacific Ocean has joined with its neighbor to form one landmass, according to EarthObservatory.com.
In November 2013, the volcano broke through the ocean's surface to become Japan's latest piece of territory in the "Ring of Fire," which stretches from the coast of Chile north to Alaska and Siberia and then circles back down past Japan and the Philippines toward New Zealand.
On March 30, NASA's Earth Observatory confirmed the Landsat 8 satellite captured evidence of expansion however. The island has continued to erupt, growing in size, and its lava joined with its neighbor, claiming the remains of a 40-year-old volcanic island, according to EarthObservatory.com.
The island now lies amongst the churn of the Pacific, approximately 600 miles south of Tokyo. It is part of a chain called the Ogasawara Islands, more commonly referred to as the Bonin Islands.
Click here to view aerial photographs of the growing island.
"This is a great example of how volcanic island like this in the Bonin Islands grow over hundreds to thousands of eruptions," volcanologist Erik Klemetti said in a post for Wired recently.
Originally scientists didn't think Niijima would last more than a couple of years. Now it is six-tenths of a mile across, and almost 200 feet tall, and is expected to be around for a long time.
"A lot of it depends on how fast it erodes," Ken Rubin, a professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and an expert in submarine volcanism, said to CNN. "Until it shuts off, it's too soon to tell."
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