湯加附近水下火山爆發(fā)后，浮石漂浮在海面上

美國宇航局的照片顯示，湯加附近水下火山爆發(fā)后，浮石漂浮在海面上

A large raft of pumice is floating in the Pacific after an underwater volcanic eruption near Tonga earlier this month.

本月早些時候，湯加附近的一次水下火山爆發(fā)后，一大片浮石漂浮在太平洋上。

Within a week the raft was twice the size of New York's Manhattan.

不到一個星期，這片木筏的大小就變成了紐約曼哈頓的兩倍。

Volcanologist with GNS Science Brad Scott said the eruption was noticed by cruising yachties north of Tonga around August 9.

GNS科學研究所的火山學家布拉德斯科特說，8月9日左右，在湯加北部巡航的游艇上發(fā)現(xiàn)了這次噴發(fā)。

NASA

NASA reported sailors in the area described a "rubble slick made up of rocks from marble to basketball size such that water was not visible," as well as a smell of sulphur.

美國國家航空航天局報告說，該地區(qū)的水手們描述了一種“碎石浮油，由大理石到籃球大小的石塊組成，看不見水了”，還聞到一股硫磺味。

Dr Scott said sailors first saw rising steam plumes and then noticed the large masses of floating pumice.

斯科特博士說，水手們先是看到上升的蒸汽柱，然后注意到大量漂浮的浮石。

"Quite commonly submarine volcanic eruptions produce pumice at the surface. It'll poor out the pumice from the active vent for, you know hours, or usually in the order of hours, maybe even days in extreme circumstances.

海底火山噴發(fā)通常在地表產生浮石。它會在幾個小時內，或者通常在幾個小時內，甚至在極端情況下的幾天內，將浮石從活動的排氣口排出。

"And they often are reported or can be seen from the satellites to be covering several square kilometres, to tens of square kilometres."

“它們經常被報道或從衛(wèi)星上可以看到，覆蓋面積從幾平方公里到幾十平方公里。”