Mystery mud on new volcanic island baffles Nasa scientists

Slayback and his team landed on what had looked like a black-sand beach on satellite, but was actually made up of pea-sized gravel that made walking painful.

Vegetation was discovered beginning to take root – with the seeds likely deposited by birds flying overhead – and a barn owl has begun to make its home on the young island, as well as hundreds of nesting sooty terns.

A light-coloured, sticky, clay-like mud continues to “baffle” Slayback and his team, as to exactly what it is, what it is made of and where it is coming from.

“In the satellite images, you see this light-colored material,” he said. “It’s mud, this light-colored clay mud. It’s very sticky. So even though we’d seen it we didn’t really know what it was, and I’m still a little baffled of where it’s coming from. Because it’s not ash.”