© NASA Earth ObservatoryLandsat 8 snapped this image of Niijima and Nishinoshima, now one island, on March 30, 2014.
As a seafloor volcano continues to erupt in a remote part of the Pacific Ocean, a newborn island has swallowed its neighbor whole, images from space show.
In November 2013, a baby volcanic island rose from the sea out of a volcanic blast in the Bonin Islands about 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) south of Tokyo, on the western edge of the Pacific "Ring of Fire," a hotbed of seismic activity. Named
Niijima, the newcomer boiled the sea and spewed steam, ash and lava fragments into the air.
Some thought the small
black cone - which sprouted just offshore of a larger volcanic island called Nishino-shima - might slip back into the sea, vanishing under pounding waves. But Niijima kept growing.
Comment: 4.8 magnitude earthquake in Yellowstone National Park