Japan Meteorological Agency

 Japan Meteorological Agency 

A zoomed-in view of the eruption, taken by Japan's Himawari-8 satellite on Jan. 15, 2022, about 100 minutes after the eruption started.

An island near Tonga that emerged from the ocean in 2015 was teeming with unique life-forms, but the 21st century's largest volcanic eruption completely obliterated it, a new study has revealed.

The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai island emerged from the Pacific Ocean due to volcanic activity in 2014 and 2015. Its short, seven-year existence gave scientists a rare window to study how life develops on new land masses, until the devastating Tonga eruption in 2022 blasted it away.

And the scientists were surprised by what they found. Instead of the bacteria families that they expected would first colonize the island, the researchers found a weird group of microbes that likely came from deep underground. The researchers published their findings Jan. 11 in the journal mBio.

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