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Home Reef

Ephemeral island in the South Pacific

Ephemeral island in the South Pacific

FieldValue
nameHome Reef
depth-10 m
pushpin_mapTonga
imageHome reef.jpg
image_captionAster simulated natural-color image. The two bluish plumes are hot seawater laden with volcanic ash and chemicals. The plumes can be traced for almost 15 km to the east.
locationHome Reef is located between Metis Shoal and Late Island, Tonga
coordinates
countryTonga
typeSeamount
last_eruptionSeptember 23, 2023 (ongoing)

Home Reef is a volcanic island atop a submarine volcano in Tonga. It is located southwest of Vava'u, between the islands of Kao and Late along the Tofua volcanic arc. The island is ephemeral, and has been repeatedly built and eroded by successive eruptions in 1852, 1857, 1984, 2006, 2022, and 2023.

An eruption in 1984 built a small, temporary island 1500x500 m, as well as pumice rafts which washed up as far away as Fiji and Australia. The island washed away within a few months.

After a volcanic eruption started on 8 August 2006, Home Reef emerged as an island; that eruption also spewed into Tongan waters large amounts of floating pumice, which swept across to Fiji about 350 km to the west of the new island. In October 2006, it reached almost the same size as it did in 1984, when it was about 0.5 x. The island was first seen by the crew of a yacht, who recorded its emergence in their blog. The eruptions produced extensive rafts of pumice, which drifted northeast from the new island. The pumice rafts and new island were imaged by the Aqua satellite in August 2006. Images also revealed several small hot crater lakes on the newly formed island.

A satellite image of the 2022 eruption.

The volcano erupted again in September 2022. Eruptions began on 10 September, and by 17 September had built an island with an area of 6 acres and an elevation of 10 m above sea level. On 20 September the Tonga Geological Services warned of ash to a height of 3 km, drifting up to 50 km northwards and 70 km eastwards. On 23 September 2022 the island was reported to have grown to 8 acres in size, estimated at 8.6 acres the following day. On 25 September, the island had an elevation of 15 m above sea level. By 3 October it had grown to 15 acres in size. The eruption ended on 17 October.

On the 23 of September, 2023, satellites spotted heat sources and a plume of volcanic gas coming from the island. As of October 1, 2023, the eruption is still going and is likely to continue and grow the island.

A visit to the island by volcanologists in November 2025 found it to be over 1km in diameter and 70m high.

References

References

  1. {{cite gvp
  2. (2007). "Satellite Observations of New Volcanic Island in Tonga". Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union.
  3. Anna Keating. (March 2007). "Tonga's ephemeral island". New Zealand Geographic.
  4. (24 May 2008). "Home Reef Reborn". NASA.
  5. (2006-08-17). "Stone sea and volcano". [[Blogger (service).
  6. "NASA Earth Observatory".
  7. (17 September 2022). "Home Reef Volcanic activity increasing as island re-emerges". Matangi Tonga.
  8. Joshua Hawkins. (22 September 2022). "NASA's Earth Observatory spots newly birthed island in the Pacific". BGR.
  9. (20 September 2022). "Home Reef Volcano new ash eruption low risk to Vava'u and Ha'apai". Matangi Tonga.
  10. (23 September 2022). "Volcanic Tongan island keeps on growing". [[RNZ]].
  11. Hernandez, Joe. (25 September 2022). "A new island has emerged out of the Pacific Ocean, but it may soon disappear". [[NPR]].
  12. Ella Morgan. (25 September 2022). "New island emerges from the ocean after underwater eruption near Tonga". Stuff.
  13. (3 October 2022). "Home Reef volcano activity non-threatening says Tonga's Geological Services". [[RNZ]].
  14. (22 October 2022). "Hazard zone lifted but landing prohibited on Home Reef island". Matangi Tonga.
  15. (17 November 2025). "First volcanology mission visits Tonga’s most active volcano". Matangi Tonga.
Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

active-volcanoes submarine-volcanoes volcanoes-of-tonga ephemeral-islands former-islands-from-the-last-glacial-maximum volcanic-eruptions-in-oceania volcanism-of-the-pacific-ocean
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