
First pictures of Tonga's newly-formed volcanic island - yitchelle
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-11/tonga-newly-formed-volcanic-island-first-pictures/6301480
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pavel_lishin
What happens if a new volcanic island forms in the middle of the ocean,
outside of any nation's borders? Could someone theoretically claim it and
start their own sovereign nation?

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Thrymr
Since every country claims a 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone
already, it's pretty unlikely that a new island will form that far from
existing land.

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joshdance
Would be cool to see a map of all the 'unclaimed' ocean space.

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c3RlcGhlbnI_
Wikipedia has one. There is a lot of it
[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:International_waters...](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:International_waters.svg)
(it is the dark blue)

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Thrymr
> There is a lot of it

Indeed, but most of it is _very_ deep and won't be seeing any new islands
soon.

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IgorPartola
Now I'm curious, how does this work with man-made islands? As in, can I build
a really big raft/barge, tow it out to one of these areas that are unclaimed,
anchor it down, and call it my own nation? Given of course that it'd be a hell
of an engineering project, and getting resources out there would be a total
pain, but is such a thing legally feasible? Or am I better of just buying a
cruise ship that never docks?

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panopticon
You might want to take a look at the Principality of Sealand as an example:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Sealand](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Sealand)

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Casseres
I visited the capital of Tonga in 2009. It's a nice place and the locals are
very friendly. If I had to choose an island nation to live on, I would choose
Tonga.

When I was briefly there, the locals weren't exposed to much gadetry, just
basic cell phones. I had an iPhone then, and I was able to connect to a
palace's unsecured WiFi.

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tomcam
It will be fascinating to see what kind of objective measurements we'll be
able to get out of it in future decades--biological diversity, erosion
properties, etc.

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plorg
Reports (e.g. [1], linked from the volcano/island's Wikipedia) suggest that
the island will probably erode away quickly, as it is composed mainly of
volcanic ash. If it does not, what you suggest would indeed be interesting to
observe.

[1] [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/new-
isla...](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/new-island-
created-by-underwater-volcanic-eruption-in-tonga-may-soon-
disappear-9993595.html)

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nashashmi
An article on relatively when the island formed.

[http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/underwater-volcano-
cre...](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/underwater-volcano-creates-new-
island-tonga-article-1.2100772)

Plus, wikipedia:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunga_Tonga](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunga_Tonga)

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joelrunyon
How new is it? I was under the impression that Kilauea in Hawaii was the
"newest" (or Lōʻihi if you want to get technical)

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Thrymr
There are some other recent ones:
[http://www.economist.com/news/international/21641246-offshor...](http://www.economist.com/news/international/21641246-offshore-
eruptions-can-create-new-islandsand-new-territorial-rights-depths)

And Lōʻihi is still underwater, likely for thousands of years yet.

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joelrunyon
I knew about Lōʻihi (that's what I meant by "technical")

