10,000 sq miles of ocean debris spotted 1,000 miles off the New Zealand coast.

[island911]

Is it "evil" plastic? . . Barges of dumped garbage? . .An Oil spill?


Nope. It's Mother nature belching a bit. BBC News - Vast volcanic 'raft' found in Pacific, near New Zealand

10,000 sq miles! ...damn, that's big.

[kach22i]

Pumice is an extrusive igneous rock that has a lower density than an equal volume of water. Pumice forms from an airborne, rapidly cooled frothy magma, full of tiny gas pockets, making it extremely light in weight.

Read more: Why does pumice float in water

Microbes Go Rafting on Floating Volcanic Rocks

Volcanoes bring death and destruction, but out of the ashes life soon finds fertile ground. A unique experiment is sifting through floating debris from an ongoing volcanic event to see how microbes move in. The results may help in assessing a recent hypothesis that the first life forms may have found fertile ground in the pores of volcanic rocks.

Undersea eruption creates pumice raft
http://www.3news.co.nz/Undersea-eruption-creates-pumice-raft/tabid/1160/articleID/264973/Default.aspx

The navy vessel Canterbury has picked up samples of the pumice and GNS scientists are on board the vessel.

Read more: http://www.3news.co.nz/Undersea-eruption-creates-pumice-raft/tabid/1160/articleID/264973/Default.aspx#ixzz23A8JDwl9

[GH85Carrera]

Man, that is gonna suck for someones beach when it comes ashore. That would make a lot of the LAVA brand hand soap!

[kach22i]

I'm sure it has a monetary value of some kind.

Microbes Go Rafting on Floating Volcanic Rocks

The porous nature of pumice explains why it is the only rock that floats. The material looks and acts like a sponge, soaking up material dissolved in the water. (Pumice is often used to clean wastewater).

If you could direct a pumice raft/field to an oil spill, it could be fix of sorts, maybe?

[J1NX3D]

hello!
it was one of my Sqn's planes that spotted the pumice field. It was returning from RIMPAC in Hawaii via Samoa.

Thats an oddly written article, especially from the BBC. The Canterbury steered towards it, not exactly away from it, to pick up samples.
Huge 25,000 Square Kilometre Sea Of Pumice Off New... | Stuff.co.nz

It's been an interesting week in New Zealand for volcanic activity. NZ has a rich volcanic history , a few have had global impact.
Hatepe eruption - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Oruanui eruption - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pink and White Terraces - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mount Tarawera - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This week Mount Tongariro dumped ash over the central North Island


and within 24 hours White Island's volcanic activity has significantly increased to catch everyones attention.
Tongariro eruption: Toxic chemical found in eruption... | Stuff.co.nz

i hope White island simmers down (pun!), it's a very popular tourist attraction for scenic flights and scuba diving.

[tevake]

I'm wondering if the source is just to the west of Hapaai Tonga. There is a volcano there that emerges thru the surface to become in island for a while when active, then subsides after a time of inactivity. The pumice was washing up on the beaches when we were cruising thru there, weird.

Cheers Richard