These amazing photographs have captured one of the rarest events imaginable – the very moment a new island is born from the ocean.
The crew of the Maiken was enjoying a sail through the South Pacific when they spotted a strange discolouration on the water.
Thinking it was a sandbar, they went to inspect it but as they got closer, it revealed itself to be something else entirely – there was a huge amount of pumice stone floating to the surface of the water.
The crew decided to sail through it, leaving a break in the stone behind them as they went.
The field of pumice seemed to be getting even larger as they passed through it. According to the crew, they began to get an uneasy feeling and upped their speed.
Once they were a safe distance away, they heard a faint rumbling. Looking back they saw water bubbling from the surface.
It turned out that the source of the pumice stone was an underwater volcano that was actually erupting at the time.
As massive plumes of smoke filled the sky, the crew decided to anchor to watch the unbelievable event unfold but as the smoke cleared, they noticed something strange just at the water’s surface…
The stunned crew couldn’t believe what they were seeing – they were witnessing the actual birth of a new island.
They sailed a little bit closer to make sure their eyes weren’t playing tricks on them.
But it was real. The peaks of this new land mass were already taking form. It just goes to show – the Earth is still changing all the time. It just happens so slowly that we can’t really perceive it.
But every now and then something incredible like this happens and fortunately we were lucky enough that these guys caught it on camera.
