Underwater eruption sends huge pumice raft floating towards Australia
An undersea volcano has spewed a 60-square-kilometre floating island into the sea near FijiIt looks more like an alien moonscape than an ocean. An undersea volcanic eruption earlier this month has left a huge raft of pumice floating on the ocean that’s slowly heading towards Australia.
The raft was estimated to be the same size as the island of Manhattan, or about 60 square kilometres, and up to 30 centimetres deep in mid-August, an update to the Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program, which collates volcanic activity worldwide, says.
Paul Henry motored through the pumice raft in mid-August, and reported damage to his 80-foot steel-hulled expedition ship, Olive.
“At about 70 miles out from Tonga we ran into a huge area of pumice and being night we were in it before we knew what was happening, slowed down and crawled thru it for an hour or so, once out had to clean the cooling water sea strainers and then we were off,” he wrote in his online log on August 16.
“Arrived Savu Savu Monday morning and tied up to the copra shed and cleared in, looked at the paint around the waterline and it’s quite badly scratched so there’s another job on the list for NZ, we have patched the worst area around the bow.
“At least it cleaned all the weed off.”
The latest Sentinel satellite images show the pumice field stretching out and breaking up as it drifts west towards Fiji.
The underwater volcano last erupted in 2001, creating a smaller pumice raft.
Pumice from the latest raft is expected to reach the Australian coastline in the next seven to 12 months, with scientists suggesting it could bring healthy new coral colonies to the Great Barrier Reef.
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