A volcanic eruption has added a new island to the seas far South of Tokyo, the Associated Press reported.
According to the Japanese Coast Guard and the Japan Meteorological Agency, the small island raised from the eruption is approximately 200 meters in diameter. The new island is located off the coast of Nishinoshima, "a small, uninhabited island in the Ogasawara chain, which is also known as the Bonin Islands," the AP reported.
The Bonin Islands are a collection of 30 islands that are 620 miles south of Tokyo. Along with the rest of Japan, they are part of the "seismically active" Pacific "Ring of Fire."
"This has happened before and in some cases the islands disappeared," Yoshihide Suga, Japan's chief government spokesman, told the AP press. "If it becomes a full-fledged island, we would be happy to have more territory."
An advisory issued by the Japanese coast guard Wednesday warned of the heavy black smoke from the eruption. Ash, heavy smoke and rocks exploding from the crater, were shown in television footage during the eruption.
Hiroshi Ito, a volcanologist with the coast guard, told the FNN news network it's likely the new island will be eroded.
"But it could also remain permanently," Ito said.
Much of the volcanic activity takes place thousands of meters under the sea, along the Izu-Ogasawara-Marianas Trench. Japan has thousands of islands. In some cases, the islands help Japan claim wide expanses of "ocean overlying potentially lucrative energy and mineral resources," according to the AP.
The last time the volcanoes in the area are known to have erupted was in the mid-1970s.
