Five Dead, Many Missing and ‘No Signs of Life’ After Volcanic Eruption on New Zealand Islandhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/12/08/white-island-whakaari-eruption-new-zealand-jacinda-ardern/At least five people are dead with many others reported missing — and authorities fearing the worst — after a volcano erupted Monday at a popular tourist site in New Zealand.
Several dozen visitors, including some from a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, were on or near White Island when it erupted at 2:11 p.m. local time, releasing thick clouds of ash about 12,000 feet into the air. Some 18 people suffered serious burn injuries and were rescued.
Police do not believe there are any survivors among the missing, following what scientists called a “throat-clearing kind of eruption.”
“No signs of life have been seen at any point,” New Zealand Police said in a statement. “Police believe that anyone who could have been taken from the island alive was rescued at the time of the evacuation. Based on the information we have, we do not believe there are any survivors on the island.”
Deputy Commissioner John Tims said at a news conference that he didn’t know how many are still unaccounted for, estimating that figure to be in the “double digits.”

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Volcano F is Origin of 'Floating Stones'https://phys.org/news/2019-12-volcano-stones.htmlStones do not float in water—this is a truism. But there is hardly a rule without exception. In fact, some volcanic eruptions produce a very porous type of rock with a density so low that it does float: Pumice. An unusually large amount of it is currently drifting in the Southwest Pacific towards Australia. When it was first sighted in the waters around the island state of Tonga at the beginning of August, it almost formed a coherent layer on the ocean's surface. The "pumice raft" made it into headlines all over the world.
Various underwater volcanoes were discussed at that time as the potential source. But direct proof for the exact origin of the pumice was missing so far. Researchers at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (Germany), together with colleagues from Canada and Australia, are now publishing evidence in the
Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research that clearly identifies the culprit. It is a so far nameless underwater volcano just 50 kilometres northwest of the Tongan island of Vava'u. "In the international scientific literature, it appears so far only under the number 243091 or as Volcano F," says Dr. Philipp Brandl of GEOMAR, first author of the study.
... The team found what they were looking for on of freely accessible satellite images. On an image of the ESA satellite Copernicus Sentinel-2 taken on 6 August 2019, clear traces of an active underwater eruption can be seen on the water surface. Since the images are exactly georeferenced, they could be compared with corresponding bathymetric maps of the seafloor. "The eruption traces fit exactly to Volcano F," says Dr. Brandl.
