There’s a Huge Floating Field Of Pumice In The Pacific
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Earlier this month, a crew of sailors in the South Pacific encountered something they had never seen before: roughly 58 square miles of floating rock in the middle of the ocean. The rock in question was pumice resulting from the eruption of underwater volcanos near the Polynesian island of Tonga. Pumice is less dense than water, which is how it can float.
While the floating pumice raft might be temporarily hazardous to sailors, it could mean good news for the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia. The Reef is currently suffering from extreme coral bleaching, which occurs when water temperatures cause the living coral to expel algae in their tissue, leading to coral death. The raft is heading towards Australia, and experts say it could help by bringing marine life and new coral with it. In essence, it can act to re-stock the Great Barrier Reef with new organisms vital to its survival.
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