Japan's Esanbe disappeared off the northern part of Hokkaido Island
As reported by "Russkaya Germaniya", Esanbe was one of 158 islets that the Japanese government named in 2014 to confirm its rights to these territories. All these islands remain uninhabited.
In September of this year, the disappearance of the island was noticed from the coast of northern Hokkaido. Reconnaissance vessels were sent to the site, which confirmed that Esanbe had finally sunk underwater.
According to one local resident, fishermen had long avoided it because navigation systems recognized the island as a submerged rock. It is assumed that the part of the island rising above the sea surface was destroyed by storms and ice drifts.
The disappearance of the island, once recorded in official documents, will lead to a revision of the boundaries of Japan's exclusive economic zone. It will shrink by about 500 meters.
It should be noted that islands disappear regularly. In October of this year, it became known that a hurricane completely washed away one of the islands of the Hawaiian archipelago, which was home to rare seals and turtles. East Island was an uninhabited sand and gravel island. Its area was about 4.5 hectares, and it was located approximately 880 kilometers from Honolulu. Scientists assume that the animals were not harmed and moved to other islands.
Another island, Tern Island, located next to East Island, disappeared two months earlier. However, it eroded gradually and predictably.
Earlier, American climatologists stated that the rise in the level of the World Ocean due to global warming is slowly accelerating – by an average of 0.084 millimeters per year. Over the past 25 years, the ocean has risen by 7.7 centimeters.