Earth got two new islands this year.

A few days ago, a new island began to appear south of Japan. This volcano is exploding like crazy.

In September, an earthquake in Pakistan caused a volcano of mud to erupt off the country’s southern shore. You can set fire to the gases bubbling out of it.

Over the past decade, an island has been slowly building up off the coast of Germany. This one had nothing to do with volcanoes: The island of Norderoogsand is basically a giant sandbar in the sea. The waves have pushed sand and silt into a crescent shape that in recent years finally became a respectable island.

Any of these new islands could disappear again soon. The Japanese island is the only one that has a chance of lasting. New islands like these typically sink back beneath the waves within a few years. Even the Hawaiian islands will eventually descend into the ocean again. In a sense, they’re all temporary.

Those aren’t the only ways that islands are made, though. Dubai has some awesome man-made islands:

What would you do with your own private island?