A volcano built an island in 1963, and scientists still tightly guard who visits

Surtsey erupted from the seafloor off Iceland in November 1963, and the eruption kept building the island for three and a half years. Since 1965 access has been restricted to a handful of approved scientists so that plants, insects and birds arriving by wind, sea and wing can colonize the land without human interference. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008 as a living experiment in how life claims bare ground.

— Standard historical accounts of Surtsey's formation and ecological study, Surtsey