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Sunday, February 24, 2008

A New Volcano Forms

New Volcano
We set sail for Fiji, passing the north side of Late island as first way point. After five miles we noticed brown, somewhat grainy streaks in the water.

New Volcano
First we thought that it might be an old oil dumping. Some ship cleaning its tanks.

New Volcano
But the streak became larger and more frequent after a while, and there were rocklike brownish things the size of a fist floating in the sea. And the water were strangely green and "lagoon like" too. Eventually it became more and more clear to us that it had to be pumice from a volcanic eruption.

New Volcano
New Volcano
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 meters into this surreal floating stone field before we realized that we had to turn back.

New Volcano
A couple of hours ago we identified the active volcano as the one close to Home reef.

New Volcano
New Volcano
We are two miles from it and we can see the volcano clearly.

New Volcano
New Volcano
One mile in diameter and with four peaks and a central crater smoking with steam and once in a while an outburst high in the sky with lava and ashes. I think were the first ones out here so perhaps we could claim the island and name it?

New Volcano
Well folks, it's getting hot.
Have to quit!


source for pics
source for text


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