New Island Appears In The Red Sea Almost Overnight

[Richard B Riddick]

Before and after

A new volcanic island has appeared in the Red Sea almost overnight. The eruption was first reported by local fishermen in mid-December 2011, 40 miles off the coast of Yemen. This before and after animated GIF shows the before and after.

The second image was taken on January 7, 2012 by the Advanced Land Imager on the Earth Observing-1 satellite. It shows the island well above the sea's surface and still growing while a plume of steam from the water and other volcanic gases are blown by the wind.

According to NASA, the land is "now about 530 by 710 meters (1,700 by 2,300 feet) across."

http://gizmodo.com/5874726/before-a...sland-appears-in-the-red-sea-almost-overnight

Original story from NASA: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=76911

This could be unprecedented.

I'm not a geologist and can't explain how or why this is really cool from a pure science perspective. Its scary how sinkholes and islands can pop out of nowhere at times. I wonder how the government claiming ownership will handle it. Maybe, turn it into a nature preserve? Private resort for the wealthy?

 

[Jack's Smirking Revenge]

it probably won't be either, it's only 500 by 700 metres.

judging from the before picture, there looks to be a lot of land mass under the sea so this new island is probably just the tip of an underwater mountain or something similar

 

[Richard B Riddick]

it probably won't be either, it's only 500 by 700 metres.

judging from the before picture, there looks to be a lot of land mass under the sea so this new island is probably just the tip of an underwater mountain or something similar

I think it got to 500 x 700 m in less than 24 hours. 700 meters across is massive, btw. Close to half a mile.

48, 72, 240+ hours later it could well be exponentially bigger given a fast rate of expansion.

 

[Jack's Smirking Revenge]

there's nothing anywhere in the article claiming it's getting exponentially bigger

 

[Shaissa]

It's Atlantis finally coming out from under the ocean!!!

But honestly, this is kinda neat, that they found it so soon, I hope they leave it alone and see what they do before some country claims it and decides what to do with it.

 

[SaShman]

As Pooley suggested, it is too small to be of any real use. 700 metres across really isn't that big, pull up Google earth and measure 700 metres from your house. The island is even smaller in practical terms when you consider that it is a mountain.

Anyway I guess this was sort of interesting. But nothing to write home about really. If it were a new continent or something that would be pretty cool. But at the end of the day there is nothing really significant about this.

 

[The Witch]

Well, if the Island grew from whatever size it was when it was found to whatever size it is today... that means it is expanding. - http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-01-10/news/30610661_1_new-island-smoke-and-ash-satellite

That article says it grew from the time they found it... and I believe that answers everyone's statements.

Anyway I guess this was sort of interesting. But nothing to write home about really. If it were a new continent or something that would be pretty cool. But at the end of the day there is nothing really significant about this.

Well, if it continues to erupt and release lava it will eventually become a landmass so it is kinda significant.

Personally, I find this creepy seeing how it's 2012

 

[Richard B Riddick]

Its science. Its cool!

For one thing, it looks like there's a media blackout on this story. NASA's original earth observatory page hasn't worked in days... Try it.

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=76911

Everything known about this dates back to december 29th, 2011 with no updates, & NASA.gov pulled their story on it(page doesn't load, anyway).

I've noticed a lot of stories which may be considered controversial or embarrassing to the US government are pulled, some days. You might call it censorship.

This is the first time I've seen what may be an intentional blackout / censorship on a nature story.

Islands have formed in the past, aye. But, I don't think they typically form in near to 24 hours... I think its far more common for the process to take years aside from massive volcanic upheavel / explosions like Krakatoa.

I think its cool!

You can think whatever you want!!

 

[The Witch]

that is interesting.

It could mean it's an intentional black out for whatever reasons they want to keep it on the DL... orrr it could mean that it's got no real importance to the world. Either way, I am intrigued and will get to the bottom of this.

End Note: I just had a final destination moment and thought about what if this over-night volcano expands so quickly it will consume the world... killing everyone...

 

[Richard B Riddick]

It could mean it's an intentional black out for whatever reasons they want to keep it on the DL... orrr it could mean that it's got no real importance to the world. Either way, I am intrigued and will get to the bottom of this. :grin

I guess in a sense, they're right. It may be unimportant & not worth thinking of.

The island is forming close to Yemen. Yemen is known for terrorism. The USS Cole was bombed while in harbor at Yemen inflicting fatalities and injuries amongst US sailors.

In a sense, NASA monitoring it is doing a service to the Yemen government who doesn't have the satellites, surveillance or resources the United States does.

If it is a blackout, they're likely doing it to avoid providing Yemen with free info for political reasons.

Its probably not very significant other than it may show censorship of news and information does exist to a degree and possibly the influence the government wields over the distribution of it.

And... I doubt many would even care about that aside from people like me who probably waste too much time on these things...

I stilll say 2012 is the mayan version of the Y2K bug.

 

[Jack's Smirking Revenge]

this clearly means that the world is going to end any day now

 

[Donald Trump]

I wonder whether this is Moses' fault, when he used his magic powers to part the Red Sea he may have used too much and now those powers are combining with the Mayan Calendar.
This must be why there is a media blackout! The CIA do not want the Yemenis to know about the crossing of the Moses powerline and the Mayan Calendar powerline, otherwise all that power there could be used for evil.
And evil is very definitely bad!

 

[The Witch]

this clearly means that the world is going to end any day now

Don't. Tell. Me. That. I am very much weary of the 2012 Mayan calendar doomsday. This volcano scares me. :C

I wonder whether this is Moses' fault, when he used his magic powers to part the Red Sea he may have used too much and now those powers are combining with the Mayan Calendar. This must be why there is a media blackout! The CIA do not want the Yemenis to know about the crossing of the Moses powerline and the Mayan Calendar powerline, otherwise all that power there could be used for evil.
And evil is very definitely bad!

This guy cracked the code.

 

[CassinoChips]

Post count section, folks. Be mindful of the spamminess.

 

[Will Graham]

All of those NASA things are loading up for me, so it must be a counter-conspiracy by those reds in Moscow

It's a pretty cool occurrence, but not as shocking as I expected. Like my pal Sacha stated, it's very sloped so there's not actually that much usable ground on it. The oceans are massive, are we sure nothing like this has ever happened before and simply hasn't been observed?

 

[The Witch]

I think it has happened before. The Hawaiian islands essentially started this very same way if my mind doesn't fail me.

The amazing part of this is that in thousands of years there might be a large enough land mass from the volcanic buildup that it will be inhabitable for animal and plant life.

Or, it could very well be a new resort for future humans to pay thousands of dollars on just so they can stay there for a vacation.

 

[Ethics]

I would imagine it would be claimed by the nation who "owns" the area already. To be fair, settling it would be extremely dangerous considering it's not very big and is still obviously quite active.

Sadly, things like this take quite a bit of patience before anything can really even be done about it. It will take many years, even after it's finished it's current, uh..."eruption" to be really very safe. Otherwise the people living there may just be living on borrowed time should it erupt again soon.

 

[Richard B Riddick]

All of those NASA things are loading up for me, so it must be a counter-conspiracy by those reds in Moscow.

You know what? I've been trying to load that NASA.gov page for the past 2-3 days using firefox, IE and chrome. Its still not loading...

But, I just tried to load it through a proxy and it worked, perfectly.

Maybe, they just don't like me. lolzz

I am pretty certain other news article have been pulled or censored in the past, though. In those cases, I have a link in my bookmarks that returns a 404 error...

Or, a link from a search engine that doesn't work anymore.... hmm.

 

[Will Graham]

Ah yes, I know that islands have formed like this before just not in such a rapid fashion. What I meant to say was, has this ever happened so quickly before? That one was fairly close to Yemen and spotted by fishermen, but there are places in the Ocean that see little to no human traffic

Nonetheless it is quite cool seeing it form right before our eyes