The 2012 Kermadec Islands eruption was a major undersea volcanic eruption that was produced by the previously little-known Havre Seamount near the L'Esperance and L'Havre Rocks[1] in the Kermadec Islands of New Zealand.[2][3] The large volume of low density pumice produced by the eruption accumulated as a large area of floating pumice, a pumice raft, that was originally covering a surface of 400 square kilometres (150 square miles), spread to a continuous float of between 19,000 and 26,000 km2 (7,500 and 10,000 sq mi)[4][5] and within three months dispersed to an area of more than twice the size of New Zealand.[6]
The thickness of the raft may initially have been as high as 3.5 metres (11 feet) and was reduced to around 50 cm (20 in) within a month.[7]
Three months after the eruption, the mass had dispersed into very dilute rafts and ribbons of floating pumice clasts. Most pumice clasts became waterlogged and sank to the sea floor, while some flocks have stranded in the Tonga islands, on the northern shores of New Zealand, and eventually on the eastern coast of Australia one year after the eruption.[7]
While the eruption is officially rated as a VEI 1 by the Smithsonian Institution, studies have found that approximately 1.5 cubic kilometres of material erupted, which correlates to a VEI 5 eruption.[8]
^Science Direct map of Kermadec Islands and Seamounts Archived 2 February 2013 at archive.today
^Klemetti, Erik (13 August 2012). "Havre Seamount: The Source of Kermadec Island Pumice Raft?". Wired. Retrieved 13 August 2012.
^Bryner, Jeanna (14 August 2012). "'Raft' in Pacific Found, NASA Says". Live Science. Retrieved 14 August 2012.
^Memmott, Mark (10 August 2012). "7,500 Square Miles of Pumice Floating in Pacific Is 'Weirdest Thing I've Seen'". NPR. Retrieved 13 August 2012.
^"Massive Rock Raft Found Floating off New Zealand". ABC News. Associated Press. 10 August 2012. Archived from the original on 12 August 2012. Retrieved 13 August 2012.
^Website of the expedition Mesh
^ abJutzeler, Martin; Marsh, Robert; Carey, Rebecca J.; White, James D. L.; Talling, Peter J.; Karlstrom, Leif (22 April 2014). "On the fate of pumice rafts formed during the 2012 Havre submarine eruption". Nature Communications. 5 (3660): 3660. Bibcode:2014NatCo...5.3660J. doi:10.1038/ncomms4660. PMC 3997806. PMID 24755668.
^Carey, Rebecca; Soule, S. Adam; Manga, Michael; White, James D. L.; McPhie, Jocelyn; Wysoczanski, Richard; Jutzeler, Martin; Tani, Kenichiro; Yoerger, Dana; Fornari, Daniel; Caratori-Tontini, Fabio (5 January 2018). "The largest deep-ocean silicic volcanic eruption of the past century". Science Advances. 4 (1): e1701121. Bibcode:2018SciA....4.1121C. doi:10.1126/sciadv.1701121. ISSN 2375-2548. PMC 5762192. PMID 29326974.
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