Surtsey: A resulted island formed by eruption of underwater volcano

Surtsey island was formed by the eruption of undersea volcano

Surtsey is a name of an island formed because of eruption undersea volcano and it was established after eruption in 1963. Almost fifty years later, the eruption had formed new lands in the southern part of Iceland and now it is inhabited by many living things including the plants, birds, insects and marine life. The Surtsey island currently becomes attractive for many volcanologist, geologists, and even more the biologists because of the formation of living things. How is it Surtsey doing now?

It has been half the century since the undersea mountain erupted and at the same time the life is formed on the ground of Surtsey now. Today, the island has been inhabited by sixty different plants and they are growing very well among birds which build nest there, insects and marine life [1]. On the other hand, ever since the eruption was happened, the shoreline of the island has been constantly changing [2]. It gave an idea to geologist about the formation of island or even more the continents.

Today, the island of Surtsey attracts many scientists from multidisciplinary to perform observation and experimentation. The attractive points are not only about how life begins there but also how can the eruption generated new island. In common, volcano eruption affects greater impact in the changing of land, ecosystem and even more could destroy the living things nearby it such as happened in Tambora and Krakatau, in Indonesia. However, some events generated amazing places such as Toba Lake and Surtsey itself.

Surtsey firstly was formed in 1963
(image is credited by S. Fridriksson, "Life develops on Surtsey,")

However, the process that occurs during the eruption is either constructive or destructive and these two things control the morphological aspect of the nearby area including subaerial and submarine erosion [3]. Volcano eruptions generate materials which contain the basic demands of life such as minerals and acids. After eruption, the condition of soils in Surtsey is categorized as lowly in organic compounds however, life found its way by the presence of nitric bacteria such as Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter which could have been carried by winds in form of spores [2].

Hence, the first thing about life started with much simpler which were micro-organisms. There were many bacteria and algae presented after eruption including respectively Beggiatoa; Azotobacter and Anabaena and Nostoc. To conclude, the current condition of Surtsey is able to support life and some of the animals and plants are able to adapt and survive there. Furthermore, the existence of Surtsey island could become real theatre for human to watch and learn the first creation of the world.

References
[1] J. S. Aabech, "The volcano island: Surtsey, Iceland," vulkaner.no, 18 February 2013. [Online]. Available: http://www.vulkaner.no/n/surtsey/esurtmenu.html. [Accessed 02 August 2017].
[2] S. Fridriksson, "Life develops on Surtsey," Endeavour, New Series,, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 100-107, 1982.
[3] C. Romagnoli and S. P. Jakobsson, "Post-eruptive morphological evolution of island volcanoes: Surtsey as a modern case study," Geomorphology, pp. 1-49, 2015.
[4] Image is downloaded from http://for91days.com/