In addition to the recent development from The Florida Aquarium that could help lead to the regeneration of our world’s greatest coral reef ecosystems, it looks like Mother Nature has decided to join in the effort as well.
After a massive underwater volcano eruption in the Pacific Ocean, a giant raft of pumice began floating en route to Australia’s Coast. Pumice is volcanic rock made up of dust or powder that is packed together and consists of a rough textured volcanic glass.
The raft formation first appeared on August 9th, after an underwater eruption near Tonga. It’s the size of around 20,000 football fields combined, and is light enough to float as one huge mass on the surface of the ocean. The sailors who first discovered it were in awe as they found themselves next to an accumulation of rock that completely blanketed the entire oceans surface.
“Rubble slick made up of rocks from marble to basketball size such that water was not visible. The rubble slick went as far as we could see in the moonlight and with our spotlight” according to the sailors report from the initial discovery
Due to the lightness in density of the pumice, sailors were able to sail through it. They described the experience as “ploughing through a field” and came to the assumption that the surface was about six inches thick. They sailed through it for six hours, reporting that most of the time the ocean’s surface wasn’t visible at all.
Geologist Scott Byron said that eruptions with results like this happen every five or so years, but for the Great Barrier Reef, the timing here couldn’t be better.
“At the moment the pumice will be bare and barren but over the next few weeks it’s going to start getting organisms attached to it,” Professor Bryan said. “Then they’re going to grow and diversify, to ultimately wash up in Australia.”
As of now, the pumice raft is en route to pass over some heavily populated coral reefs in the eastern Coral Sea’s. What’s even better is it will be passing over these reefs during reproduction season, therefore picking up hundreds of coral spawn in the pumice, and carrying them to Australia. Once in Australia they’ll resettle and, hopefully, begin to repopulate the barren areas.
Every piece of pumice that makes up this massive formation acts as a vehicle for marine and coral reef rebuilding organisms across the deep ocean, a journey that they would never be able to make alone. This process has been going on for years now, and is possibly how the Great Barrier Reef was formed in the first place. Due to how new this type of rock formation actually is, it’s ability to work as the ocean’s public transportation system is extremely unique.
Ultimately, this will help to repopulate some of what we’ve lost in our coral reef ecosystems, however, it’s not a permanent solution. The main reasoning behind the destruction of our world’s coral reefs is due to increasing ocean temperatures caused by excessive greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. So while mother nature is providing us with a band aid for this issue, it’s up to humanity to shift our lifestyles in order to guarantee a future of clean, diverse, and well-populated oceans.
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.
