Volcano Islands uninhabited. The first recorded sighting by Europeans was in October 1543 by Spanish navigator Bernardo de la Torre on board of carrack "San Juan de Letrán" when trying to return from Sarangani to New Spain. Iwo Jima was charted as Sufre, the old Spanish term for sulphur. The islands were uninhabited until 1889, when the two northern islands were settled by Japanese settlers from the Izu Islands. They were annexed by Japan in 1891. The population was about 1,100 in 1939, distributed among five settlements: Higashi, Minami, Nishi, Kita and Motoyama (meaning "East", "South", "West", "North" and "Mountain of Origin",
Shield volcano contains at least 43 major volcanoes, and Meiji Seamount at its terminus near the Kuril–Kamchatka Trench is 85 million years old. The volcanoes follow a distinct evolutionary pattern of growth and death. The chain includes the second largest volcano on Earth, Mauna Loa, which stands above sea level and reaches a further below the waterline and into the crust, approximately of rock. Kīlauea, meanwhile, is one of the most active volcanoes on Earth, with the current ongoing eruption having begun in January 1983. The Galápagos Islands are an isolated set of volcanoes, consisting of shield volcanoes and lava plateaus, located