New island offers clues in search for life on Mars: NASA

WELLINGTON: 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 (40 miles) northwest 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”.