There is a large rock drifting on the sea, can you imagine such a scene? The stone is heavier than the water, how can it float on the surface of the water? However, on January 4, 2022, news from CCTV and other media said that China's Hainan Maritime Safety Bureau issued a navigation warning on January 2 this year, marked "QiongHang Police 001/22" warning that a large area of volcanic pumice belt (also known as pumice raft) was found 5 nautical miles southwest of the Xisha North Reef (17 ° 03.93 ′ N, 111 ° 28.08 ′ E) in the South China Sea, and is now drifting in a southwest direction, and the surrounding ships are reminded to pay attention to avoidance when sailing. How did these stones, which are lighter than water, come from? Since it is called volcanic pumice, it must be related to volcanic eruptions! We all know about volcanic eruptions, but what many friends don't know is that volcanic eruptions usually spew out a stone that is lighter than water, that is, volcanic pumice, so this thing actually comes from the interior of the earth, through volcanic eruptions to the ground or the sea, just like the acne squeezed out of the skin by people. This kind of stone is not like our common stone, it has a lot of bubbles inside, so it is also called bubble stone, drifting stone, a large number of bubbles make it low density, there is no density of water, can float on the surface of the water. In fact, most of the grinding stones and sound insulation materials we commonly use are made of it.
There are also often volcanic eruptions in the ocean, some submarine volcanoes erupt, usually a large amount of volcanic pumice will be sprayed into the ocean, last year (2021) August 13, Japan Honshu Island a thousand kilometers south of the volcanic archipelago near the field of fordegan eruptions, a large number of volcanic pumice from the seabed from here, forming an area of more than 30 square kilometers of "volcanic pumice raft", this piece of pumice from the "earth extruded pimples" of the very much pumice, spreading a large area on the sea surface, It's like an island drifting on the sea, which is about the same size as China's Macao Special Administrative Region, and even the satellites in space have clearly photographed this giant pumice raft.
After that, the satellite continued to track and photograph this "pumice raft island", and found that it drifted west and northwest under the influence of ocean currents and sea breezes, drifting more than 100 kilometers in a week, and later drifted to the vicinity of the Ryukyu Islands at a slower speed, according to the news from the Okinawa Times on October 26, 2021, that these volcanic pumice stones could be "in trouble" here. According to the local fishing port of Ryukyu, a large area of floating stones covered the waters of 25 municipalities and villages near Ryukyu, and many of the gills in the border fishing port of the Chinese village of Tou died due to accidental eating of pumice stones, and fishermen dissected the fish and found that their stomach bags were full of pumice stones.
So is the volcanic pumice raft near the Xisha North Reef in the South China Sea also an undersea volcanic eruption from Fudegang Field? Although there is no drifting trajectory, the road map shows that these volcanic pumice stones come from the field of Fudegang, but it is speculated that the probability is still from there, first of all, the submarine volcano that clearly appears volcanic pumice in 2021 is the field of Fudegang, and then the volcanic pumice raft that appears here can drift westward along the ocean current, and when it reaches the vicinity of okinawa Islands, it can drift north or south, drifting north can reach Kyushu, Shikoku and Honshu Island, and drifting south can enter the South China Sea along the east coast of Taiwan Island through the Bashi Strait. It makes sense to reach the paracel islands.
Therefore, the volcanic pumice near the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea is most likely from the Fukukuoka Field volcanic eruption in Japan, which after the eruption from the seabed, floats on the sea for a long time, usually can float for several months, some can even float for several years, and some pumice rafts can even exceed 100 square kilometers.
Do not underestimate this kind of pumice, it is actually a very good mineral, not only can be used to do foot-rubbing, now its function is more and more, especially in building materials, the amount required is quite large, in addition to being used as a filter, desiccant, catalyst, polishing agent, insecticidal powder carrier, plastic and paint filler, rockery and pumice landscaping, etc., the use is very extensive, if you do a good job, you can also make a million profits, and the raw materials on the sea in addition to freight almost do not have to spend money, see here are not all want to fish a boat?
Resources:
"CCTV" January 4, 2022 article "Volcanic pumice belt found in the South China Sea, Hainan Maritime Safety Bureau issued navigation warning"
I only pay attention to Baihetan, but I don't know that this huge hydropower station in China has been completed, generating 38.9 billion kWh last year
Five-in-one! Chang'e-7 will house both satellites and lunar rovers, as well as the first lunar vehicle
How good is Hualong No.1 nuclear power unit? 16% more power than the world's largest Baihetan hydropower unit
8 years ahead! The Sino-Russian Lunar Research Station will be completed in 2027, why should the construction suddenly be accelerated