[SFDXA] New entity? Who will be 1st to put on air?

[Bill]

 From Tony N2MFT:
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  Hunga Tonga volcano eruption forms new S Pacific island

By Roland HughesBBC News
12 March 2015Last updated at10:35 ET
A new volcanic island rising from the Pacific Ocean - March 2015.The new 
island is some 500m across and 250m high
<http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-31848255#story_continues_1>

A new island has been formed in the South Pacific after the eruption of 
an underwater volcano in Tonga.

Images have emerged of the island's surface, 45km (28 miles) north-west 
of Tonga's capital, Nuku'alofa.

The island - which is 500m (1,640 feet) long - was formed after an 
eruption at the Hunga Tonga volcano that started in December.

One scientist said the island was likely to be highly unstable, and 
dangerous to visitors.

A new volcanic island rising from the Pacific Ocean - March 2015.One 
visitor to the island said the earth remained hot to touch

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

Video captured on a boat hundreds of metres from the volcano showed 
fast-rising plumes of gas emerging from the sea.

Satellite images taken within days of the eruption showed new rock 
formations, and more sediment in the sea.

And next to one of the two islands that previously made up Hunga 
Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai was a large circular crater.

A resident of Tonga's main island captured striking images of the new 
island from its surface.

A green toxic lake at the Hunga Tonga volcano - March 2015A sulphurous 
lake has emerged at the mouth of the Hunga Tonga volcano

Gianpiero Orbassano, who owns a hotel in Tonga, travelled to the island 
with two friends and said he was likely to make another trip soon.

"It's really quite solid once you are on it and it's quite high," he 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."

Mr Orbassano, 63, had previously travelled to another new volcanic 
island in the Pacific, where friends took golf clubs to play on the new 
landscape.

"I don't feel risk," he said. "When I am doing this kind of thing, I'm 
focusing on my photographs. I don't feel danger."

Footage of the Hunga Tonga volcano erupting was captured in January 2015.
'Fascinating to see'

Mary Lyn Fonua, editor of the Matangi Tonga news website, travelled by 
boat to view the eruption in January.

She said: "We got to within 700m of the volcano and when you're that 
close in a small boat, it can be quite risky.

"An underwater volcano behaves quite differently - all the gas can shoot 
out to the side. But it was a fascinating thing to see, just to watch a 
whole new island being constructed."

Two islands of Hunga Tonga by satelliteA satellite image of Hunga Tonga 
before the eruption
Satellite image showing two islands and large craterA large new crater 
emerged after the eruption last December

Mrs Fonua said she was unlikely to get closer to the new island: "Its 
quite fragile really, I don't really think you should go on it. And we 
don't really know if the eruption has finished either."

'Better keep clear'

Matt Watson, a reader in natural hazards at the University of Bristol, 
said the surface of the island was likely to be "highly unstable".

"It will be very loose and unconsolidated material," he said. "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.

Map of Tonga, and Hunga Tonga volcano

"That's also going to make it more vulnerable to the waves. It's going 
to be battered by some of the waves and currents, particularly in Tonga."

Dr Watson said he would be staying far from the volcano if he was in 
Tonga. "You would really have to strongly convince me, with strong 
scientific reasons, to go on it," he added.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-31848255

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunga_Tonga
Coordinates    20.57°S 175.38°W
Country    Tonga

http://volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn=243040