Who Form 8865 Islands 2023-2024

In 2015, Earth saw the birth of a new island, the first of its explosive type in 53 years. The blast was so large that nearby tourists caught the explosion on camera. Despite raging volcanic activity above and below the earth's crust, an event like this is pretty rare, which is why it immediately caught the attention of Dr. Jim Garvin, chief scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and Mars expert. It should be a pile of assaulting andesitic rocks, that's what you expect in this kind of setting. But there's more. What does a Mars expert see in the island that the rest of us don't? The new island, unofficially known as Hunga Hunga Hunga Ha'apai, is located in the remote South West Pacific, nestled between two other islands in the Kingdom of Tonga. It's the first island of its kind to erupt and persist in the modern satellite era, giving scientists an unprecedented view from space of its evolution. There are other islands being formed, including ones near Japan. Very nice lava eruptions, classic. But this one was special because there was this explosive element that reminded us, at first glance, not exactly of the kind of eruption [we] see. This is the eruption Jim is talking about, an island born from a similar explosive eruption in 1963 and one of only three volcanic islands that have survived in the past 150 years. Very early in Jim's career, Surtsey was the first newly formed oceanic island he ever studied. Dr. Jim Garvin, scientist here at Goddard, years later, he went on to become NASA's chief scientist, pushing the agency's priorities towards Mars exploration that eventually led to the creation of the Mars exploration Rovers, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the Mars Science Laboratory. So why is a scientist clearly fixated on...