Tonga volcano eruption creates new island

An underwater volcanic eruption has given birth to a new South Pacific island.

The 500m-long land mass, located 45km northwest of Nuku'alofa, Tonga, was formed after an eruption at the Hunga Tonga volcano that started in December last year.

While it may seem like an idyllic getaway scientists have warned visitors to steer clear, saying the island is highly unstable and vulnerable to waves and currents.

"It's quite fragile really, I don't think you should go on it. And we don't really know if the eruption has finished either," Mary Lyn Fonua, editor of the Matangi Tonga website told BBC.

The volcano, which goes by the full name of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai, erupted for the second time in five years in December.

Matt Watson, a reader in natural hazards at the University of Bristol, added: "It's formed by fragmentation of magma, so it's basically small pieces of rock on top of each other that have formed an island."

Video, captured hundreds of metres from the eruption, showed the volcano spewing water as fast-rising plumes of gas emerged from the sea.

Satellite images taken at the time showed new rock formations already beginning to emerge – and at the centre, a large circular crater.

One person who didn't heed the warnings was Gianpiero Orbassano, who travelled by boat to capture striking images of the new island from its surface.

"It's really quite solid once you are on it and it's quite high," Mr Orbassano, who owns a hotel on Tonga's main island, said.

"It felt quite safe - the only difficult thing was getting out of the boat on to the island. The surface was hot, you could feel it. And climbing it was hard in the bright sun."

The 63-year-old said he had previously travelled to another volcanic island in the Pacific, where he and a group of friends played a spot of golf.

Source: BBC