Massive rock raft found floating off New Zealand

reply to post by Blackmarketeer


Interesting photo's and give an idea of what this raft may look like

but the blog you linked to with these photo's is from 2011 and not the raft mentioned

raft 1 (rft)
n.
1. A flat structure, typically made of planks, logs, or barrels, that floats on water and is used for transport or as a platform for swimmers.
2. A flatbottom inflatable craft for floating or drifting on water

"Massive rock raft found floating off New Zealand"

See how your thread title is misleading?

Where are the REAL pictures of this thing?

Haven't they sent anyone over it with a plane and a camera yet?

So is this going to mean there will be a "Notice To Mariners" or "Chart Corrections". It is rock (like land), but moving and floating (like a hazard to navigation). Intakes for some tunnel drives might take some serious damage.

The ring of fire is waking up
a huge undersea volcano erupted
that confirms in a way that a huge earthquake might not be to far
the ground is cracking into pieces
just look how many sinkholes we had this yrs

Originally posted by blueflash
Sounds like from most reports its come from the undersea volcano Mount Monowai which lies North of New Zealand and the earthquake active Kermadec Islands. Interesting spot that!!

Just a correction to this, latest reports have suggested the pumice is not from Mount Monowai as originally thought. So back to the drawing board by the looks of it atm.

Source - Radio NZ

reply to post by aarys


The worst possible senario for the North Island of NZ is Lake Taupo - a mega super volcano thats lay dorment for many years. That blows, that's the end for the North Island.

Originally posted by Hudson69
raft 1 (rft)
n.
1. A flat structure, typically made of planks, logs, or barrels, that floats on water and is used for transport or as a platform for swimmers.
2. A flatbottom inflatable craft for floating or drifting on water

"Massive rock raft found floating off New Zealand"

See how your thread title is misleading?

This is the sort of errant pedantry up with which we need not put!

How is this not a flat structure floating on water? The only thing missing is the swimmers. Besides, your phonetic pronunciation of 'raft' is misleading, champ. So ease up on the stone-chucking, yeah?

Get it? Stone-chucking? Well at least it's not off topic.

reply to post by seamus


Well, New Zealand will have a new export to 'boost' the economy.....home of Lamb, LOTRs & .........pumice stones ;-)

reply to post by seamus


My post is "errant pedantry"? I think not...at least it was relevant to the thread title. The thread title was relevant to nothing as it contained true errant pedantry.

Originally posted by ThinkingCap
Where are the REAL pictures of this thing?

Haven't they sent anyone over it with a plane and a camera yet?

The only plane in New Zealand has been busy at the Olympics. Meanwhile,we are trying to get hold of Australia's amazing America's Cup submersible and are asking the Japanese if we can borrow an instant camera.





link

Tahitian vulcanologists have determined that the raft became visible on July 19 and was caused by a volcanic eruption associated with a series of earthquakes in the days prior.

They have pin-pointed the origin of the raft to 72 kilometres south west of Curtis Island, one of the Kermadec islands, halfway between New Zealand and Tonga.

More than 157 earthquakes between magnitude 3 and 4.8 occurred in the area between July 17 and 18, the Laboratoire de Geophysique told their colleagues at GNS Science.

GNS vulcanologist Brad Scott said he was unaware of any volcano in the specific location where the raft was believed to have originated from.

"At this time I don't know if we could identify a sub-marine volcano at that location," Scott said.

It could have been emitted from a previously-unknown volcano, or it could be that others have knowledge of a volcano in the area while he doesn't, he said.

Pumice rafts have been well documented throughout history, infact only the other week I was watching a documentary and they attributed a well known passage from (possibly archimedes??) where after a giant earthquake and volcano the bay became solid and was so thick it could be walked apon..this is now believed to be a pumice raft that became more than a meter deep!

anyway here is a video of the current "raft" though I think its a misnomer in this case as its pretty broken up!

www.rt.com...

loads of examples on the internet if you look around - for example this giant one

earthobservatory.nasa.gov...

and here is the island on google maps click me

It would be so cool to just lay back on this raft of rocks, look up at the sky, or better yet, close your eyes, and just FEEL the motions...while remaining completely dry. Possible? Not sure. Awesome? Definitely.

Originally posted by Hudson69
raft 1 (rft)
n.
1. A flat structure, typically made of planks, logs, or barrels, that floats on water and is used for transport or as a platform for swimmers.
2. A flatbottom inflatable craft for floating or drifting on water

"Massive rock raft found floating off New Zealand"

See how your thread title is misleading?

Sigh... Who invited Mr. Stiffy McStifferson to the party??

reply to post by 3n19m470


This stuff is the Balsa wood of rock. It would be like trying to lie on polystyrene packing popcorn in the water. Like Ricies/Rice Bubbles in your breakfast bowl and you are a spoon. (lol, you are a spoon! New Zealand humour)

reply to post by Hudson69


raft/raft/
Noun:

1.A flat buoyant structure of timber fastened together, used as a boat or floating platform.
2.A large amount: "a raft of investigations".

As in a raft of legislation??
So this is a raft of pumice.

Originally posted by dornicks
reply to post by seamus

 

Well, New Zealand will have a new export to 'boost' the economy.....home of Lamb, LOTRs & .........pumice stones ;-)

Unfortunately, pumice is nothing "new" in New Zealand. The area around Taupo has extensive pumice deposits from previous eruptions. The smooth flat ones conveniently make excellent skimming stones, and the porous nature of the rock means that soils with pumice have excellent water drainage capabilities.

Originally posted by Hudson69
My post is "errant pedantry"? I think not...at least it was relevant to the thread title. The thread title was relevant to nothing as it contained true errant pedantry.

Come on dude, everyone else understood the context of "raft" in the title, so it could definitely be considered "errant pedantry". But if you really insist on relying on the literal definition of a dictionary...

Definition of RAFT

1 a : a collection of logs or timber fastened together for conveyance by water
b : a flat structure for support or transportation on water
2: a floating cohesive mass
3: an aggregation of animals (as waterfowl) resting on the water

Merriam Webster

Well, if someones spent their life in the oceans experiencing these sorts of things, tells me this is the strangest thing in in relaton to size that he's ever seen... its worth investigating.....

Not because this pumice is a threat, but because some underground event of such scale has occured in NZ, causing 2 dormant volcano eruptions in the north (Link) as well as one massive one underwater in the south causing this pumice raft.

Originally posted by Agit8dChop
Well, if someones spent their life in the oceans experiencing these sorts of things, tells me this is the strangest thing in in relaton to size that he's ever seen... its worth investigating.....

Not because this pumice is a threat, but because some underground event of such scale has occured in NZ, causing 2 dormant volcano eruptions in the north (Link) as well as one massive one underwater in the south causing this pumice raft.

Just to clarify, this recent finding of pumice is far to the North of New Zealand near Raoul Island, about halfway between New Zealand and Tonga. See this article for a map of the area with markers corresponding to the location of the pumice raft compared to Raoul Island and the underwater volcano Monowai.

Also, Tongariro and White Island would both have been considered active, although the terms dormant and active are rather loosely defined. The vents near the current eruption on Tongariro last erupted about 115 years ago (with a potential unconfirmed eruption in the 1920's), although the nearby Ngaruhoe cone considered part of the Tongariro massif last erupted in 1977. White Island is New Zealand's most active volcano, with the last magmatic eruption occurring 12 years ago, and has ongoing hydrothermal activity.

In saying that, I have previously commented on the "coincidence" of both these volcanoes entering new eruptive phases within a day or two of each other, even though geologists state there is probably no connection. Now with this volcano out to sea, I wouldn't rule out the possibility of some unknown geological connection between the timing of these eruptions, but I can only speculate. But we are on the Pacific Ring of Fire, and future volcanic activity is practically a certainty.