Just when we all thought geologists were going to become the rock stars of science, last week put on  an exciting week for volconologists here  in New Zealand 

 After Tongariro surprised everyone with its eruption,  White Island smoked as well  and then to cap it all off a large  raft of pumice was spotted north of New Zealand 

  This pumice raft results from  a submarine volcanic eruption from one of the multiple of seamounts that are part of Kermadec arc north of New Zealand. Noone knows actually which of the volcanoes there is causing it but the raft that results is massive -about  26,000 square kilometer pumice raft . That's a bit smaller than Belgium.

The raft is located to the northeast of Raoul Island , one of the active volcanoes of the Kermadec Islands  that is above the sea surface. The next known active volcano to the northeast of Raoul is Monowai ,and it is thought that this many be the source , but this will likely only be determined by   matching the composition of this pumice with that of known material from Monowai -or a different volcano in the Kermadecs.