A volcanic eruption recently created a new island in the Pacific Ocean, 1,000 kilometres south of Tokyo, Japan.

Before the island emerged at the surface of the ocean on November 21, the volcano structure had been rising slowly from the ocean bottom through the occasional spewing of lava over thousands of years. This phenomenon is not new, particularly in the regions surrounding the Pacific Ocean known as the Ring of Fire.

This is a series of volcanoes around the Pacific Ocean that are the result of subduction of oceanic plates beneath continental plates.