New Island forms in Red Sea after Volcanic activity

The island – essentially lava that cooled after breaking through the water's surface – began forming this month (December 2011) between Yemen and Eritrea among the Zubair archipelago, a group of small islands that come from a submarine shield volcano.

The Red Sea has a new tiny island, courtesy of an underwater eruption!

New Island among the Zubair archipelago
New Island among the Zubair archipelago

The island – essentially lava that cooled after breaking through the water’s surface – began forming this month (December 2011) between Yemen and Eritrea among the Zubair archipelago, a group of small islands that come from a submarine shield volcano.

Source: Eruption creates new island in Red Sea

Zubair archipelago before the new island was formed
Zubair archipelago before the new island was formed

An eruption occurred in the Red Sea in December 2011. According to news reports, fishermen witnessed lava fountains reaching up to 30 meters (90 feet) tall on December 19. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites observed plumes on December 20 and December 22. Meanwhile, the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on NASA’s Aura satellite detected elevated levels of sulfur dioxide, further indicating an eruption.

The activity in the Red Sea included more than an eruption. By December 23, 2011, what looked like a new island appeared in the region. The Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite captured these high-resolution, natural-color images on December 23, 2011 (top), and October 24, 2007 (bottom). The image from December 2011 shows an apparent island where there had previously been an unbroken water surface. A thick plume rises from the island, dark near the bottom and light near the top, perhaps a mixture of volcanic ash and water vapor.

The volcanic activity occurred along the Zubair Group, a collection of small islands off the west coast of Yemen. Running in a roughly northwest-southeast line, the islands poke above the sea surface, rising from a shield volcano. This region is part of the Red Sea Rift where the African and Arabian tectonic plates pull apart and new ocean crust regularly forms.

Source: Nasa

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CW Staff
CW Staff

In the late 80s I started investigating UFOs and crop circles and joined the CCCS (Centre for Crop Circle Studies) and a local group researching strange sightings and reports along the south coast of Dorset (UK). In the early ’90s I started my own research group called SPS (Strange Phenomena Studies), this was renamed in 2004 to Cryptoworld.

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