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A Hawaiian island disappeared thanks to a powerful hurricane that swept the region earlier this month.
What happened: The East Island has disappeared from its location after Hurricane Walaka that devastated Hawaii in October, reported The Guardian.
- The island's gravel and remote sand lay at the top of a coral reef. The scientists captured images of the area where the 11-acre island once stood. He is now gone.
- "I pronounced a big word. I had a moment of "sacred cow!", Somewhat incredulous, says Chip Fletcher, professor of earth sciences at the University of Hawaii.
- Nathan Eagle from Civil Beat shared a before-after image on Twitter.
How they found it: Fletcher and his fellow researchers undertook to capture images and samples of sand from the island to better understand his age.
- "The island was probably between one and two thousand years old and we were there only in July. So it's really bad luck to lose it, "Fletcher said. "We wanted to monitor the island and we were disappointed with the loss, but we learned that these islands are much more threatened than we thought. I thought the island would stay about a decade or two longer, but it's a lot more fragile than I thought. The top, middle and bottom are gone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2Pw4aejtUw
L & # 39; s future: We do not know if the island will come back.
- The seals and turtles that use the island are already gone for the season. USA Today reports that the number of animals that will come back is uncertain.
Larger image:
Fletcher told HuffPost
events like this could become more common.
- "This is not surprising considering the bad fate of a hurricane in the area. Rising sea levels are already considered a backward stressor for these ecosystems, "he said. "The likelihood of such events increases with climate change."
Herb Scribner, Deseret News
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