A Gigantic Island Of Pumice Stones Is Floating Towards Australia

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  via IFL Science

  Around August of 2019, a giant raft of pumice was spotted floating in the Pacific Ocean by an Australian couple who were sailing to Fiji. And by "spotted" we mean their yacht sailed right into the 150 square kilometer (93 square miles) island of floating pumice and were slowed down to 1 knot as they pushed through millions of the lightweight rocks. 

  
  

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  via Giphy

  Pumice is formed when super-hot, highly pressurized rock is ejected from a volcano and comes into contact with water. After it is ejected, the pumice cools and depressurizes rapidly, causing bubbles to form and dissolve in the lava, leaving the stone with it's bubbly texture. This particular island of pumice was created by an underwater volcano near Tonga, and it is expected to arrive on the shores of Australia in around seven to twelve months. 

  
  

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  via NY Times

  Aside from being a really strange phenomena (floating balls of bubbly lava forming a gigantic raft? So weird), there are some benefits and drawbacks that this pumice island presents. The size of the pumice stones go from marble size to the size of a basketball, and the Australian couple who floated through the raft estimated that it was around 6 inches deep. Pumice is abrasive and can scratch the paint off boats and get caught in propellers and engines, so floating through a pumice raft isn't a good idea. That said, it also creates a navigational hazard for boats because trying to dodge something the size of a small country obviously puts you far off course. 

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  via Giphy

  But it's not all bad. The floating island is actually a great way for marine life to hitch a ride. Algae, barnacles, crabs, corals, snails and worms are among the organisms that will attach themselves to the pumice raft and potentially find new homes on the coastline of Australia, including in the Great Barrier Reef. 

  The Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef in the world, and it's experiencing severe coral bleaching, which occurs the water is too warm. Coral's color comes from a microscopic algae called zooxanthellae, which lives in symbiosis with the coral. When water temperatures become too warm, the coral stresses and expels the algae, which turns the coral white. Without the algae, the coral can't survive. 

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  via NPR

  But once the pumice raft washes up onto Australia's coast, hopefully a new distribution of sea organisms will help the Great Barrier Reef to regain it's former glory. Thank god for floating rafts of pumice! 

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