Tropical storms or hurricanes that occurred in 1905 has eliminated a coral island in the Pacific waters named Nadikdik Atoll or Knox Atoll. Now, after more than a century swept away the storm, scientists from New Zealand found that the island had grown back. Murray Ford and Paul Kench, two scientists from the University of Auckland in New Zealand, publishing their findings in the Geomorphology journal.
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| In 1905 a devastating typhoon swept over the Nadikdik Atoll in the middle of the Pacific ocean, killing the majority of inhabitants and washing away most of the island, but since then, the island has regenerated (pictured). (Picture from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/) |
Two geologists analyzed aerial photos of Nadikdik Atoll between 1945 until 2010. The storm that occurred on June 30, 1905 was a clean sweep of the island vegetation, damaging coral constituent, and killed 60 people.
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| Researchers at the University of Auckland studied aerial images (pictured) of the islands from 1945 up until 2010 and found that a new island has grown from decimated remains. (Picture from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/) |
However, just over 60 years, according to scientists has been rapid, the island is now growing again, has more vegetation, and stable. "The storm certainly collect large amounts of sediment and threw them to the island helping to organize again," said Ford.
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| Nadikdik Atoll (pictured) - otherwise known as Knox Atoll - is an uninhabited coral atoll of 18 islands in the Pacific Ocean. (Picture from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/) |
The effect, as reported by The New Zealand Herald, Thursday (20/02/2014), a new island appears next to the island before. "The islands change, move, and change, you will see a period of erosion and accretion on one side on the other side," said Ford.
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| In just over 60 years the island has grown lush vegetation and by studying the aerial photographs they found that patches of greenery on the once barren islands have grown by almost 25 per cent. Similar vegetation on the island of Ailuk atoll in the Marshall Islands is pictured. (Picture from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/) |
Ford lived in the Marshall Islands, north Nadikdik Atoll, and said that the rapid growth of the island. "Scientific evidence suggests that in addition to the hurricane last century, the island geomorphic adjustments are still happening," said Ford.
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| Studying small islands will help scientists better understand how new islands are created, which is of particular interest as many people are worried that small islands will disappear under rising sea levels, triggered by global warming. An aerial view of Bora Bora Island in the French Polynesia archipelago is pictured. (Picture from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/) |
"What can be learned from this is that a major event could destroy the island, but could trigger a series of processes that enable it back," said Ford. According to Ford, to understand the growth of the small island, scientists can gain an understanding of how an island is formed. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | DAILYMAIL]
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