The volcanic island of Hunga Tonga, spawned by an underwater volcano in the South Pacific, is now full of life.
In late December 2014 and early 2015, an underwater volcano erupted in the South Pacific Kingdom of Tonga, causing a strong stream of steam, ash and rocks to rise into the air.
When the ash finally settled in January 2015, a newborn island with a 400-foot summit appeared between two older islands.
The newly formed island of Tonga, informally known as Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haapai, was originally thought to last for several months. Now researchers from NASA believe that the island can exist for 6 to 30 years.
Incredibly, Hunga Tonga is only the third such volcanic island to emerge in the past 150 years, so this is an incredible scientific opportunity to explore its esoteric environment - and especially to see how this landscape can resemble another strange and rocky area … including, hypothetically, Mars.
A recent expedition to the island gave scientists a rare opportunity to see everything with their own eyes and walk along the rocky slopes on foot.
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Its surface is mainly pea-sized black gravel. The terrain is quite flat, although there are elevation differences, hills and even some kind of mountains.
In some places, some kind of jolly clay appears on the surface and scientists do not yet know what it is.
But perhaps the most remarkable thing about this young island is how quickly life took over him.
In addition to areas of vegetation growing on land (presumably seeded with bird droppings), the team also tracked hundreds of seabirds called black soot terns (Onychoprion fuscatus) nesting in the rocky ravines of the Hunga Tonga.
NASA believes Honga Tonga could provide a new model for studying the history of water on Mars, which could help us understand whether life exists on the Red Planet or not.