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Huge Pumice Rock 'Island' Seen Floating In South Pacific

Posted by timothy on from the israel's-really-small dept.

First time accepted submitter ZombieBraintrust writes "Pumice, the lightweight stone used to smooth skin, is usually found in beauty salons, but on Thursday sailors from New Zealand's Royal Navy found nearly 10,000 square miles of the lava rock bobbing on the surface of the South Pacific Ocean."

7 of 104 comments (clear)

  1. Reportedly... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...the sailors who made the discovery had the clearest skin that the reporter has ever seen.

    1. Re:Reportedly... by biometrizilla · · Score: 5, Funny

      In related news, Joan Rivers took a swim in the Pacific yesterday and emerged without her makeup.

  2. Nothing to worry about... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's just Cthulhu turning over in his sleep.

  3. not exactly an island by Trepidity · · Score: 5, Informative

    If it's like previous pumice rafts, it's more like a large area of debris than a big island. Here's a random photo showing a boat plowing a path through one made up of smaller pieces. Not really the kind of thing you can walk around on, though the description of this one having an edge like an ice-shelf makes it sound like it may have larger rocks in it. Here is a NASA satellite photo of a 2006 occurrence with a more obvious origin (it's adjacent to an erupting volcano).

    --
    10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
    1. Re:not exactly an island by Spiridios · · Score: 5, Informative

      If you click through to TFA's TFA, you'll see they properly used the term "raft" unlike MSN. They also mentioned that their vessel plowed right through it, even though "The rock appeared to be sitting above the surface of the waves and when lit up looked like the edge of an ice shelf."

      For further terminology bending, the Daily Mail calls it a rock ice-shelf. They also have a pic of it that looks more frothy than island or ice-shelf like.

    2. Re:not exactly an island by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      You tell 'em Mitt!

      And who knows where this "plastic" even came from. The science is still out on that, there's no evidence that its even man made...

  4. Re:New Zealand has a navy??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The NZ Navy is composed of two main groups: the officer corps, and the radio corps. The officer corps directs the radio corps; the radio corps calls for help when things go bad. Their two main geographical zones are west (a phone number for Australia) and east (a phone number for the US).