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Made of 'tuff' stuff: Why this new island that rose from the ashes in Tonga is here to stay

Nasa scientists say that examining the way the island sprung up could shed light on if there’s any life on Mars.

NASA Goddard / YouTube

THE WORLD’S NEWEST island – formed during a volcanic eruption in the remote Pacific three years ago – may offer clues to how life potentially developed on Mars, NASA said Wednesday.

The island of Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai rose from the seabed about 65 kilometres north-west of the Tongan capital Nuku’alofa in late 2014-early 2015.

Scientists initially expected the island — created when vast quantities of rock and dense ash spewed from the Earth’s crust — to wash away within a few months.

But NASA said it had proved more resilient than expected, possibly because warm sea water combined with ash during the volcanic explosion to create a concrete-like substance known as “tuff”.

While the island – which initially measured one kilometre wide, two kilometres long and about 100 metres high – has undergone significant erosion, it is now expected to last anywhere from six to 30 years.

cec0014_sm View from the top of tuff cone of the new Tongan island, June 2017. NASA / Damien Grouille/Cecile Sabau NASA / Damien Grouille/Cecile Sabau / Damien Grouille/Cecile Sabau

Jim Garvin, the chief scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said it was a rare chance to study the life cycle of a newly created island.

He said Mars had many similar volcanic islands that appeared to have been surrounded by water when they were created.

Garvin said such spots may be prime locations to look for evidence of past life because they combined a wet environment with heat from volcanic processes.

Examining how life gained a foothold on the Tongan island could help scientists pinpoint where to look for evidence of life on Mars, he said.

“Islands like this might have worked on Mars two or three billion years ago – lakes and small seas filling depressions, persistent surface waters,” he said.

(It’s) stuff we really strive to understand because it could have produced the conditions necessary for microbial life.

NASA’s studies on the island were presented at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in New Orleans this week.

It comes after US President Donald Trump on Monday directed NASA to send Americans to the Moon for the first time since 1972, in order to prepare for future trips to Mars.

© AFP 2017

Read: Trump signs order to send astronauts to the moon, to Mars and ‘perhaps many worlds beyond’

Read: Ireland’s first ever satellite could blast off as early as 2019 (and it might even have a little flag)

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    Mute Thomas Hannigan
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    Jul 25th 2013, 7:20 AM

    Councillors and ex TDs walk from corruption charges,and not one column reporting this..The silence is deafening,, ,,,,,,

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    Mute Dermot Lane
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    Jul 25th 2013, 8:10 AM

    True Thomas.

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    Mute the lost lenore
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    Jul 25th 2013, 9:25 AM

    Incroyable! The Journal runs an opinion piece that’s not about sexism. Give yourselves a pat on the back, that must have been difficult.

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    Mute Little Jim
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    Jul 25th 2013, 11:28 AM

    Typical male attitude.!

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    Mute the lost lenore
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    Jul 25th 2013, 11:31 AM

    I demand a quota system to redress the gender imbalance of this thread.

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    Mute Emily Elephant
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    Jul 25th 2013, 7:55 AM

    It’s nuts to think that you can entrust decisions about people’s liberty to 12 unqualified people, and at the same time not trust those 12 unqualified people to look at the evidence presented in court rather than media hysteria.

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    Mute Enola Straight
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    Jul 25th 2013, 8:08 AM

    Unqualified? Do elaborate.

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    Mute ieoinu
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    Jul 25th 2013, 7:19 PM

    I disagree, the jury system is not without its faults but it is the fairest system there is. The principle of interpretation of our laws is based in that of the reasonable man and that when tried you are judged by your peers. If you have qualified people on a jury (by qualified people trained to do the task, familiar with laws, procedures etc basically quasi judges) you remove this element of the reasonable or normal person. The example I would give would be Padraig Nally, he did everything needed that a professional jury would have been quite right to convict him of at least manslaughter. However a jury of his peers (seeing things they their own eyes and drawing from their own experiences) acquitted him albeit on a retrial.

    Now a professional jury drawing a wage and living in middle Ireland may not be able to draw on such experience or perspective and arrive at the same conclusion. My experiences come from the prosecution end of things and seeing cases fall because of a jury’s verdict is aggravating and frustrating but it has to be respected, it is what protects all of us from all of us.

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    Mute George Barwood
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    Jul 26th 2013, 1:19 AM

    I’m in some kind of battle with the UK Press Complaints Commission, re Daily Mail comment policy on a recent high profile US case.

    http://jodi-arias.wikispaces.com/Daily+Mail+complaint

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    Mute Paul Roche
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    Jul 25th 2013, 8:58 AM

    Fergal,
    Proposed legislation for “Family Law” and “whistleblower protection” will create new offences where information disclosed relating to decisions made in unaccountable courts.
    Judicial accountability is key for those who would decide on what is in the public interest.

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    Mute itiswhatitisMF
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    Jul 25th 2013, 8:37 AM

    Bankers and the elite and politicians have one law the rest have another. 2 tier system.

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