Yacht Maiken - Amazing Pics Of A New Volcanic Island, Tonga

[Trim50]

Yacht Maiken witnesses the birth of a new volcano island in the Pacific.

Saw this posted on another forum and thought it was so amazing that I'd post it here.

http://yacht-maiken.blogspot.com/2006/08/s...nd-volcano.html

Imagine running into this in the dark!

[Harbor_Pilot]

WOW! Totally Amazing!

They may not be the first people in history to witness such an event, but perhaps the only ones to capture it in photographs, as it happened.

First hand proof of how volcanic islands form. Photographs researchers would be interested in.

I am curious:

- Of the effect on the surrounding water temperatures.

- The effect on ocean life, scurrying off.

- What happens with / to the floating pumice? Does it eventually sink, or float around until it washes up on various shores.

I was going to check for recent seismic activity in that area, when I noticed the date of their Blog: Thursday, August 17, 2006.

Possible Photo Titles:

Natural Global Warming?

Our Changing Globe

Our Ever Changing World

How to start your own Island Nation

Free Land: Be there as it is made, and claim it first

How To Boil An Ocean

Jeff

[BJSmith]

Originally Posted by Trim50

Saw this posted on another forum and thought it was so amazing that I'd post it here.

http://yacht-maiken.blogspot.com/2006/08/s...nd-volcano.html

Imagine running into this in the dark!

The Bounty Bar in Neiafu Vavau Tonga posts a copy of a list of uncharted reefs between Tonga and Fiji. There must be at least 30 or so on that list. The reported positions were collected over the years by airline pilots and frieghter captains. Many have no recorded depths. If you plot them on your chart it kinds of scares you. Many yachties that sailed in that area suggested they were underwater eruptions. In October of 1995 on a passage from Fiji back to Vavau I was called on deck by the crew to observe a reef right on our track! Nothing was indicated on the chart nor the list. Hmmmm.... we approached the "reef" on the downwind side and could see the water turn from deep blue,light blue to green and then brown. Winds were light but there was no swell breaking over the "reef" very unnerving to say the least. Never did ever get a depth reading. We could tell it was pumice floating on the surface. I have heard numerous tales such as ours but no one ever took photos. Those photos by Maiken are incredible. I just didn't have the nerve to sail through that stuff and was too nervous to take photos.

[Trim50]

Exactly! I would be afraid of sucking that stuff into my cooling system. No way I would push through it.

[Lighthouse]

A GoogleEarth pic showing the new island:

HERE

And

More info

[Trim50]

Ah see!

And then we sailed into a vast, many miles wide, belt of densely packed pumice. We were going by motor due to lack of wind and within seconds Maiken slowed down from seven to one knot. We were so fascinated and busy taking pictures that we plowed a couple of hundred meter into this surreal floating stone field before we realized that we had to turn back. Just as we came out of the stone field and entered reasonably normal water we noticed that there came no cooling water from the engine.

[Harbor_Pilot]

Lighthouse,

Doing more research, I found the answer to my earlier question of, "What happens with / to the floating pumice?".

Pumice is light weight, often with pockets of gases trapped inside; "gas inclusions". It could float around a looong time.

The photos in the links that you provided show the result in island bays, and on the beaches.

This is still so amazing!

~ ~ ~

More Possible Photo Titles:

From the President of the UN: “Now, who is testing bombs in the South Pacific?" Whom ever it was blew a hole in the floor!

From one sailing mate to another: "Honey, are you SURE you remembered to unplug the toaster?

[Trim50]

This story is in this months Dicover Magazine...so I was just told.

[imagine2frolic]

Trim, that was my immediate thought too. I once motored in Mexico through it seems billions of bright red lagunistas. They were sucked into the cooling, and blew the head gasket. Then the ordeal began, sailing north along Baja trying to reach the states.