While walking along the beach today, we found some striped pumice stones. They are lovely. According to Fannie, they are striped because Novarupta Volcano and Mt. Katmai had interconnecting magma chambers when Novarupta erupted. 33 billion tons of material blew out of Novarupta, depositing 6 cubic miles of ash and pumice. Some of what came out of the eruption were banded. The bands were caused by three different types of magma that combined during the eruption: white rhyolite, black andesite, and dacite. They all cooled together and formed the banded pumice we found. Isn' that interesting...something so pretty that came from two different volcanoes.
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Very enjoyable blog. I love Alaska
ReplyDeleteAfter two trips to Alaska I never thought to ask about the pumice. I even have some of it from Hallo Bay here in Florida. Thanks Fanny. Hope to see you next year when John and I return.
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