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So, How Does New Land Form Anyhow?

| May 15, 2018 @ 5:36 am

By Jordan Rabinowitz

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DISCUSSION: Ever since the Earth formed, many people around the world have continued to remain intrigued by how new islands form as the Earth has evolved.  The key answer to this question often lies in certain places near the bottom of various oceanic basins around the world.  At locations wherein there is an underwater volcano, such places are known as hot-spots. Hot-spots are effectively locations at which new land can form due to underwater volcanic eruptions ejecting volcanic material close to (if not right up to) the surface of the ocean above where the given eruption occurred.  Thus, given the right sub- and surface-based oceanic conditions, new islands can form over the course of time.

It is worth noting the fact that underwater hot-spots were responsible for forming island chains around the world such as (but certainly not limited to) Hawaii.  Thus, hot-spots provide a unique and viable method by which new islands and island chains can and do form in different parts of the world over very long periods of time.  It is also important to note that such processes take a long time, so anyone interested in moving to a newer, developing island should not exactly “buy stock” in future building developments on these “growing islands” since it can often take centuries and even millennia until such islands are remotely ready to start being inhabited in any capacity. Thus, even though the premise of new islands forming in your lifetime may sound enticing, this does not always correlate to what you may think it will within a given lifetime.

To learn more about other neat geo-science stories from around the world, be sure to click here!

© 2018 Meteorologist Jordan Rabinowitz

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