25,000 sq km sea of pumice floats off New Zealand

[bluestflame]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/science/7455060/25-000-sq-km-sea-of-pumice-floats-off-New-Zealand

http://static.stuff.co.nz/1344573360/349/7456349_600x400.jpg


"A navy ship heading to the Kermadec Islands has sailed into a huge 25,000 square kilometre area of pumice pieces north of Auckland.

It is believed to be from New Zealand's third erupting volcano – the undersea mount Monowai. In the past week both Mt Tongariro and White Island have erupted.

The navy said the raft – 463 kilometres by 55 kilometres – was spotted by an RNZAF Orion returning on patrol from Samoa.

Lieutenant Tim Oscar, a Royal Australian Navy officer on an exchange with the NZ Navy, saw what he described as "the wierdest thing I've seen in 18 years at sea."

[bluestflame]

just thought it was interesting as it was found floating nowhere remotely near the volcano that cleared its throat the other day and it was on the northEAST side of the islands

[SilentFeathers]

This one could be about ready to blow its top!


Magma high inside New Zealand volcano indicates possible large eruption
Scientists believe a large eruption of New Zealand's Mount Tongariro is possible, if not imminent after seeing the test sample results of the volcano.
http://www.examiner.com/article/magma-high-inside-new-zealand-volcano-indicates-possible-large-eruption

[bluestflame]

if the pumice came from so far away could indicate pressure building up over an extremely large area underground

[WhiteFeather]

Volcanoes definately.....Or: They could of blown up some more DUMBS perhaps..... Or: Our friends from the stars dumped some pumice in the ocean to clean it up from all the Tar Balls by The BP Spill several years ago. I heard that Pumice Is a good cleaner and has many, many uses. Both On Land and Off Land.

[Carmody]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumice

[Mu2143]

A huge mass of small volcanic rocks (pumice) was spotted in the South Pacific ocean (north of Auckland, New Zealand) on August 9, 2012 by a New Zealand air force plane.

http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/aug102012-underwater-volcano-pumice.jpg
http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2012/08/10/underwater-volcano-eruption-spews-huge-mass-small-volcanic-rocks-covering-area-25000-km2/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOZZNIXzvUc&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOZZNIXzvUc&feature=player_embedded

[witchy1]

About Monowai
Monowai is a volcanic seamount to the north of New Zealand. It is one of the most active volcanoes in the Kermadec volcanic arc.
The most recent eruptions were in 2008 and 2011.
The summit is approximately 132 metres (433 ft) below sea level, considerably above the level of the nearby Tonga and Kermadec Trenches. The summit’s position and depth changed between 1998 and 2004, due to a landslide and eruptive regrowth. A 1500 metre deep caldera, 13 by 8 km, lies 5–15 km NNE of the seamount’s main cone.
http://news.tangatawhenua.com/archives/18727

17754

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The area of floating pumice is 250 nautical miles (463km) in length and 30 nautical miles wide (55km), and covers 25,465 square kilometres.

GNS Science vulcanologist Craig Miller told NZ Newswire the pumice raft has been caused by an undersea eruption and it was originally thought that the undersea volcano Monowai had erupted, but that is northeast of Raoul Island. http://home.nzcity.co.nz/news/article.aspx?id=151858&fm=newsmain%2Cnrhl

The amount of pumice erupted from Mount Monowai would cover 80% of Belgium or all of Isreal ......just as a FYI and to get some perspective

[Rocky_Shorz]

Out Of Our Depth: Deep-sea oil exploration in New Zealand
BRIEFING
- A sea change in government strategy - Safety concerns - The risks of deep-sea oil - Where is deep-sea oil exploration taking place in New Zealand? - International oil companies in the dock
Updated: May 2012

The inability of the authorities to cope with the effects of the recent oil spill from the Rena cargo ship, despite the best efforts of Maritime New Zealand, has brought into sharp focus the environmental risks involved in the Government’s decision to open up vast swathes of the country’s coastal waters for deep-sea oil drilling.

The Rena accident highlights the devastation that can be caused by what in global terms was actually a relatively small oil spill at 350 tonnes and shows the difficulties of mounting a clean-up operation even when the source of the leaking oil is so close to shore. It raises the spectre of the environmental catastrophe that could occur if an accident on the scale of the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico were to occur in New Zealand’s remote territorial waters.

The potential dangers of deep-sea drilling, and the exploration of oil below water depths of 200 metres, have been understood for years. But until recently such dangers were only ever academic as the extraction of deep-sea oil was regarded as prohibitively expensive. In the last few years, however, a combination of declining global oil reserves from traditional sources (1) and rising oil prices worldwide has driven companies to seek out ever riskier sources of oil in order to maintain their revenue streams. And sadly, successive New Zealand governments of different political stripes have shown themselves only too willing to assist... link (link




Energy and resource sector lobby group Petroleum Exploration and Production Association of New Zealand (PEPANZ) supports the PCE investigation. Chief executive David Robinson said that in 28 fracking operations in Taranaki there were no incidents of drinking water or land contamination or earthquakes linked to fracking.

"We're confident that this inquiry will dispel misinformation about the environmental impacts of hydraulic fracturing and will show what great lengths the industry goes to ensure the practice is done safely with proper caution taken."

He said fracking in New Zealand does not include the use of toxic BTEX chemicals, highly carcinogenic chemicals, which are still used in some places overseas.

It's clear that if the Government cannot get the public onside sooner rather than later, the fracking issue threatens to tumble into an snowballing election issue, spurred on by images of environmental disasters. Until then, councils could face a morass of objections, litigation, and potential liabilities when resource consents for fracking are sought.

Fracking

The process

To prepare for the fracking process, a drill hole is lined with steel casing and explosive charges are detonated in the pipe to induce hairline fractures in the rock...

link (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10800310)



hmmm

let's drill down into the shell of a volcano and once inside set off explosive charges...

what could possibly be dangerous about that...

can anyone find a location map of Fracking operations and deep well exploration in the area?

the Kermadec island has been having tons of quakes lately, but I'd like to see if Haliburton and BP are down there showing everyone how to drill for oil safely...

[bluestflame]

wonder how thick (or thin?) the steele casing they use to detonate the explosives in is ?

[ghostrider]

the earth's crust is moving bigtime the last three days, lots of strange stuff happening.