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EnvironmentHuge rocky desert on the Pacific

Pascal Schürmann

 · 27.08.2019

Environment: Huge rocky desert on the PacificPhoto: S. Lenz/Youtube
Australian sailors film a carpet of stones floating on the surface of the Pacific Ocean
Sailors get stuck in a pumice stone carpet in the Pacific. Their video of the experience seems almost surreal. The rock field is several square kilometres in size

Australian yachtswoman Shannon Lenz has published a video on YouTube showing how her yacht at Vava'u near Tonga runs into a huge field of stones floating on the surface of the sea. Scientists assume that this is pumice stone that has been washed to the surface as a result of an undersea volcanic eruption. The chunks are currently floating there as a closed stone field.

The sailors report that they sailed through the stones for around seven hours. The carpet was so dense that they could not see any water for hours. The dimensions can be seen on satellite images; according to these, the stone desert is almost 100 square kilometres in size. The individual pieces of pumice range in size from a marble to a football.

Sailors get caught in a gigantic pumice stone field near Vava'u

The sailors were lucky during the journey through the rocks; their yacht was only slightly damaged. However, the rudder was blocked by the boulders for some time, so that they were temporarily unable to manoeuvre.

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Pascal Schürmann

Pascal Schürmann

Editor YACHT

Pascal Schürmann joined YACHT in Hamburg in 2001. As head of copywriting and head of the editorial team, he makes sure that all articles make it into the magazine on time and that they are both informative and entertaining to read. He was born in the Bergisches Land region near Cologne. He learned how to handle the tiller and sheet as a teenager in a touring dinghy on the Sneeker Meer and on a tall ship on the IJsselmeer. During and after his studies, he sailed on the Baltic Sea and in the Mediterranean. As a trained business journalist, he is also responsible for boat financing and yacht insurance reports at YACHT, but also has a soft spot for blue water topics.

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