Birth of Volcanic Island Caught on Camera
See Photos of New Land Forming in the Tonga Islands
Dec 12, 2008
Imagine how bizarre it was for the crew of the Yacht Maiken to come across a field of “floating sand” near the Tongan Island group of Vava’u. It was the first clue that there were stirrings on the floor of the ocean as earth prepared to create a new island.
First Witnessesof New Island
Fredrik Fransson and his uncle Hakan Larsson were delivering Fransson's CBN 36-ft yacht from Brisbane Marina in San Francisco to Brisbane, Australia, when they encountered a raft of pumice so dense their speed dropped from 7 knots to 1 knot.
They rightly guessed that this raft of pumice related to an area of recent volcanic activity near Tonga. Making their way to 18 degrees 15' 5" S, 174 degrees 46' 3" W, they found a volcano had crested the surface of the ocean and was spewing smoke, ash and pumice. They rightly also guessed that they were the first people on the planet to witness this phenomenon which occurred on 12th August 2006.
History Repeating Itself
The enormous raft of pumice, which was visible from space, was created by a volcanic eruption south west of Late Island – part of the huge area of volcanism known as the Pacific Ring of Fire . The considerable seismic activity in the area of Late Island is linked to the Home Reef volcano .This volcano last formed an island in 1984.
Ian Wright, a marine geologist from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research in Wellington, New Zealand, commented that prevailing currents and waves erode such pumice and cinder islands down to about 10 to 40 meters below the surface. A similar cycle of creation and destruction had occurred in 1984. He went on to say that the volcano would probably repeat this cycle every 10 to 200 years.
Stunning Imagesof Pumice Rafts
The first image below was taken on September 15 2006 by a NASA satellite - about a month after the eruption - and shows the new volcanic island and the pumice raft to the northwest of Late Island. A trail of pumice connects the raft to Late Island. Other images were taken by the crew of the yacht Maiken as they steered through the dense raft of pumice stones.
What is Pumice Stone?
Pumice is a volcanic rock that is very light and porous. It contains hollow vesicles which contain volcanic gasses formed during the eruption. This makes the rocks buoyant enough to be able to float on the surface of the sea until the gas leaches out and water gets in, at which time they will sink to the bottom of the ocean.
References:
Fredrik Fransson and Håkan Larsson, Yacht Maiken, 32 Macrossan St., Unit 70, Brisbane 4000, Australia, To visit their Weblog
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