Birth of an island

[Mind_your_head]

<snip>
At first it looked like an ugly oil slick.

But as they crew of the yacht Maiken sailed closer to brown patch on the ocean near Tonga they realised they were observing something far rarer and far more beautiful.

What looked like a brown stain on the South Pacific turned out to be a spectacular drift of floating pumice stones stretching more than 16 km - and an indication an island was being born nearby.

After navigating a course towards steam clouds on the horizon, the crew of the yacht was treated to the sight of lava spewing up from the ocean to create new land where previously there had been none.

One of the few people to witness first hand volcanic activity creating an island, crew member Frederik Fransson last week told of his experience during a stop-over in Brisbane.
<snip>

Entire story: http://blogs.smh.com.au/science/archives/2006/12/post_3.html

Cronicle of the adventures on the yacht Maiken (with very cool pics):
http://yacht-maiken.blogspot.com/2006/08/stone-sea-and-volcano.html

[Ian David]

1. And then...

[Catherine Vincent]

3. Godzilla!!!

LOL!

[CatWoman]

4. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

:rofl:

[Mind_your_head]

5. ROFLMAO - you really should put a "spray alert" in your subject line!

:rofl: :spray:

[Warpy]

2. That might explain the cluster of big quakes in the region, then

occurring offshore from Tonga.

[Mind_your_head]

6. Good point

I probably wouldn't have thought to put these two things together, but it would seem to make sense that there might be a relationship.

:hi: