Submarine Eruption Makes It Three for New Zealand

Aerial view by the New Zealand Navy of a pumice raft spotted near Raoul Island in the Kermadec Islands on August 10, 2012. Image from the New Zealand Herald. Just think, one week ago I was saying that 2012 was a relatively quiet year for volcanic eruptions. We haven't made up all the ground of the more active years like 2010-11, however New Zealand had one of its more exciting volcanic weeks in a century -- White Island and Tongariro both had eruptions and yesterday a large pumice raft was spotted north of the island nation. This pumice raft (see right) is the product of a submarine volcanic eruption from one of the multiple of seamounts that are part of Kermadec arc north of New Zealand. Exactly which volcano is the source of the pumice is unclear -- early on, it was suggested that Monowai was the source, but that ...