Here's an incredible view of North Carolina's new (and growing) island, thanks to satellite

A mile-long island recently formed off the coast of North Carolina's Outer Banks, and thanks to newly released satellite images from NASA, we now have a crystal-clear view of this piece of land.

Shelly Island — which was first registered back in November 2016 and reported about in June — lies just off the tip of Cape Point at Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Images acquired by the Operational Land Imager on the Landsat 8 satellite show the shoal's growth over the past few months.

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NASA shared three natural-color images of the land's progression over time: the left is from Nov. 2016, the center is from Jan. 2017, and the right was taken most recently, on July 7, 2017.

Image: NASA Earth Observatory images by Jesse Allen and Joshua Stevens, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey

The shoal is only slightly visible in the second shot, but by July the island is clear, wrapping around the cape’s tip.

In a NASA report, geomorphologist Andrew Ashton discussed what might have led to the island's formation. "What exactly causes a shallow region to become exposed is a deep question, and one that is difficult to speculate on without exact observations," he said, noting that this type of thing likely occurs due to "...a high tide or storm-driven water elevation that piled up sediment to near the surface...."

When water levels drop and the shoal becomes exposed, Ashton explained, "waves then continue to build the feature while also moving it about."

As the report mentioned, in the past 10 years several islands have formed off the shoal of Cape Lookout, a nearby cape down the barrier islands.

Even so, this particular surprise sandbar sure is beautiful.

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