Japan's "Snoopy" island is chewing up another.

Images from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Earth Observatory shows Niijima island, a volcanic formation that broke through the waters south of the main islands of Japan late last year -- and, as noted by observers across the globe, resembled the black-and-white canine cartoon character created by Charles Shultz -- has now merged with Nishinoshima island, which formed from a volcano about 40 years ago.

And the likeness to Snoopy has all but vanished.

Niijima arose about 550 yards from Nishinoshima in November, but now the latest satellite data generated in late March. Now, according to observations taken at the end of March, the two island have merged into one island that measures about six-tenths of a mile across and so far reaches about 200 feet above sea level, according to a report by CNN.

Back in December, when Niijima was only a third of the height it is today, the island was expected to only last a few years before being chewed up itself by erosion. Now, however, scientists suspect "Snoopy" may stay a considerable while longer.

"A lot of it depends on how fast it erodes," Ken Rubin, a University of Hawaii at Manoa professor and expert in deep submarine volcanism, told CNN last year. "Until it shuts off, it's too soon to tell."

The island is located along the Pacific "Ring of Fire" string of volcanically-active land forms, which stretches from the coast of Chile north to Alaska and Siberia and then south to New Zealand.

The newly-merged island is about 600 miles south of Tokyo in the Ogasawara Islands, also known as the Bonin Islands.

Rubin told CNN the volcano currently building the newly-formed island is the world's most common type, which erupts and spits out material underwater. "Probably more than 80 percent happen in the oceans, and we never know about them," he said.