stone sea and volcano

November 9, 2006 9:52 PM

A yacht crew witnessed the birth of a new island and other strange consequences of volcanic activity in Tonga, and here are pictures they took.
posted by thirteenkiller (44 comments total)

Water births are all the rage these days.
posted by brain_drain at 10:08 PM on November 9, 2006

I think this could possibly be the coolest thing ever posted on the internets and, at the very least, is very cool. I like!...
posted by wsg at 10:13 PM on November 9, 2006

Freakin' awesome. Nice pics. That floating mat of pumice is incredible.
posted by loquacious at 10:15 PM on November 9, 2006

When I heard of this this afternoon, the first thing I thought was that the yacht had came "upon a coastline of mingled mud, ooze, and weedy Cyclopean masonry which can be nothing less than the tangible substance of earth's supreme terror - the nightmare corpse-city of R'lyeh, that was built in measureless aeons behind history by the vast, loathsome shapes that seeped down from the dark stars."
posted by marxchivist at 10:16 PM on November 9, 2006 [2 favorites]

awesome post, thirteenkiller, thanks!
posted by madamjujujive at 10:32 PM on November 9, 2006

Hope the new island is named Maiken.
posted by Cranberry at 10:33 PM on November 9, 2006

Neato - reminded me of the great pumice storm at sea in Harris' Pompeii.
posted by freebird at 10:33 PM on November 9, 2006

Cool. With rising ocean levels, the Tongans now have somewhere to relocate.
posted by sourwookie at 10:33 PM on November 9, 2006

Well, stranger things have happened at sea… oh wait. Very cool indeed, quitting his job and sailing 6,000 miles. The swimming with whales looks awesome!
posted by tellurian at 10:34 PM on November 9, 2006

Rocks floating on water? This world is, indeed, a freakin' strange place. How cool to have been there to witness some of this. But they need some magma monsters and mutant sea creatures to sell the story to Hollywood.
posted by fenriq at 10:35 PM on November 9, 2006

Oh! for goodness sake, it's on ebay.
posted by tellurian at 10:44 PM on November 9, 2006

[this is good]
posted by greycap at 11:18 PM on November 9, 2006

Dibs.
posted by Eideteker at 11:21 PM on November 9, 2006

damn it, this confirms it... blogger is blocked again in China.
posted by trinarian at 11:22 PM on November 9, 2006

This is, I agree, completely awesome. I saw it linked on CNN earlier, and then found the two pages thirteenkiller links to, and I'm glad to see them posted here... but I don't understand why the Tonga paper and the AP are only picking this story up now? It happened in August. I wonder what tipped who off.
posted by LobsterMitten at 11:36 PM on November 9, 2006

Related link that kids of all ages enjoy: Build your own volcano. Set the conditions and see what kind of volcano forms and how it will explode. Its cool.
posted by maxpower at 11:56 PM on November 9, 2006

volcanoes are cool.
posted by exlotuseater at 12:29 AM on November 10, 2006

Now let's see if it shows up in this Sunday's New York Times Real Estate section. ("Hot Properties in the South Pacific"?)
posted by flapjax at midnite at 12:42 AM on November 10, 2006

Woah. This is very cool.
posted by kosher_jenny at 12:55 AM on November 10, 2006

Oh, for heaven's sake, tellurian, I was hoping you meant the island.
posted by eritain at 1:09 AM on November 10, 2006

Took me awhile to realize that I was looking at floating ash, and not the beach that my brain was expecting. Very cool photo of the swath through the ash lying in the wake.
posted by StrangerInAStrainedLand at 1:17 AM on November 10, 2006

ABSOLUTELY BEYOND KEN.

Seen every million years or so.

Pale snark material, --boring--
posted by toma at 4:45 AM on November 10, 2006

Do we live on the coolest planet in the Galaxy, or what?
posted by Devils Rancher at 5:30 AM on November 10, 2006

Perhaps expanding the discussion beyond "cool!": Volcanic Eruptions May Affect El Nino Onset. We'll see.
posted by spock at 5:35 AM on November 10, 2006

Rocks floating on water? This world is, indeed, a freakin' strange place.

Ahem. Very small rocks.
posted by Anything at 5:46 AM on November 10, 2006

I have a couple of pieces pumice that I found floating in Lake Atitlan in Guatemala. Very cool stuff--looks like rock, feels almost like styrofoam. The volcanoes around there aren't active, but the stuff washes down with every rain storm, and just bobs around in the lake until it washes ashore. I, too, love volcanoes, and had a series of AskMetafilter questions on the subject.
posted by MrMoonPie at 5:49 AM on November 10, 2006

Excellent. A miles wide sea of pumice? Wow!
posted by jamesonandwater at 6:19 AM on November 10, 2006

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the obvious lack of a black-cloud monster/security system.
posted by thanotopsis at 6:33 AM on November 10, 2006

Very interesting
posted by caddis at 6:51 AM on November 10, 2006

I recall Jack and Stephen encountering much the same thing in the Pacific some time back.
posted by stargell at 7:30 AM on November 10, 2006

Sir Bedevere: No, no. What else floats in water?
Peasant 1: Bread.
Peasant 2: Apples.
Peasant 3: Very small rocks.
posted by cows of industry at 7:36 AM on November 10, 2006

Shouldn't the page title be "The Call of Cthulhu"?
posted by nkyad at 7:38 AM on November 10, 2006

I'd be a bit worried about some kind of heavier-than-air or poisonous gas blanketing the area.
posted by StickyCarpet at 7:56 AM on November 10, 2006

on the ocean? nah.
posted by caddis at 8:20 AM on November 10, 2006

Intelligent Design ? Who the hell would put a volcano underwater ?!
posted by elpapacito at 9:31 AM on November 10, 2006

New islands rising from the deep? I'm betting Lex Luthor is somehow involved.
posted by quin at 9:53 AM on November 10, 2006

Who the hell would put a volcano underwater?

The whole land-volcano thing is very passe. It's either that or orbiting the earth, which would perhaps confuse more than frighten.
posted by CynicalKnight at 11:07 AM on November 10, 2006

The pumice on the sea totally reminded me of this!

(glee. fave children's book)
posted by bullitt 5 at 12:16 PM on November 10, 2006

Your link redirects! But I love that book too.
posted by thirteenkiller at 12:27 PM on November 10, 2006

The poisonous gas comment is all the excuse I need to post a link to my favorite picture from the Hawaii trip.
posted by MrMoonPie at 1:00 PM on November 10, 2006

Completely awesome.
posted by LoriFLA at 5:14 PM on November 10, 2006

It's already got a Starbucks on it. Because, you know, them things is everywhere.

Why yes, it is 1993, why do you ask? Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some Zima to drink while watching The X Files.
posted by cerulgalactus at 5:35 PM on November 10, 2006

Poisonous gas?

on the ocean? nah.

What if you became becalmed?
posted by StickyCarpet at 5:46 PM on November 10, 2006

Your link redirects! But I love that book too.

Right click, 'Copy Link Location', open new tab, paste into URL bar :) easy way to get around 'REFERER' redirects.

And: cool! I too was hoping to see rafts of solid pumice floating around, instead of a bunch of teensy pebbles, but even so, that's really neat. Thanks for the links!
posted by cyrusdogstar at 1:45 PM on November 14, 2006