Video | Non-stop eruptions from Tonga volcano create new island in South Pacific

A Tongan volcano has created a substantial new island since it began erupting last month, spewing out huge volumes of rock and dense ash that has killed nearby vegetation, officials said.

The volcano, about 65 kilometres northwest of the South Pacific nation’s capital, Nuku’alofa, rumbled to life on December 20 for the first time in five years, the Lands and Natural Resources Ministry said.

A number of international flights were cancelled earlier this week amid concerns about the volcano’s ash plume but they resumed last Wednesday, with authorities saying debris from the eruption was not being thrown high into the atmosphere.

The volcano was erupting from two vents, one on the uninhabited island of Hunga Ha’apai and the other underwater about 100 metres offshore, the ministry said.

Experts took a boat trip to view the eruption last Thursday and confirmed it had transformed the local landscape.