Earth's youngest bit of land is getting a new lease on life.
The new island, informally dubbed Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai, is part of the Tonga island chain. Since January 2015, NASA satellites have tracked the island's growth and erosion. Scientists are using this data to estimate its life span, said James Garvin, chief scientist of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
In the first six months, waves rapidly eroded the volcanic tuff, which is hardened ash that forms the island's central cone. Then that erosion slowed, and the island began to change shape as waves redistributed some of the eroded sediment to form a land bridge to a nearby island. Researchers now give the island six to 30 years of life — after that, only the land bridge will remain.
Garvin said the island's life cycle may help scientists better understand Mars's past. Finding similar erosion patterns on Martian volcanoes could help researchers understand whether the eruptions occurred in an ocean that has now vanished.
