Volcanic islands merge in Pacific Ocean

A volcanic island in the Pacific Ocean has merged with its neighbour to form one landmass, NASA scientists say.
The merged island is a result of eruptions on the seafloor that have spewed enough material to rise above the water line.
In November 2013, a seafloor volcano in the western Pacific Ocean spewed enough material to rise above the water line.
The new island, or "niijima" in Japanese, sprouted just 500 meters from Nishino-shima, another volcanic island that had last erupted and expanded in 1973-74, NASA said.
Four months later, the new and the old are now one island, and the volcanic eruption shows no sign of abating.

On March 30, this year, the Operational Land Imager on the Landsat 8 satellite captured an image of Nishino-shima, depicting the extent of the new island.

The niijima portion of the island is now larger than the original Nishino-shima, and the merged island is slightly more than 1,000 meters across.
Two cones have formed around the main vents and stand more than 60 meters above sea level, triple the highest point of the island in December.
Volcanic lava flows are reported to be most active now on the south end of the island.
"This is a great example of how volcanic islands like this in the Bonin Islands grow over hundreds to thousands of eruptions," volcanologist and blogger Erik Klemetti said.