WLW: UC geologist explains giant floating rock in Pacific
Thomas Algeo tells "Eddie and Rocky" the pumice island will disappear over time
"Eddie and Rocky" on 700-WLW spoke to University of Cincinnati geologist Thomas Algeo about the discovery this month of a giant island of rock floating in the Pacific Ocean off Australia.
A couple sailing in the South Pacific reported finding an island of pumice the size of Manhattan floating off Tonga, according to CNN.
UC geologist Thomas Algeo. Photo/Joseph Fuqua II/UC Creative Services
Algeo, a professor of geology in UC's McMicken College of Art and Sciences, said the island was formed from a volcanic eruption deep underwater.
"The rock floats because it's full of air bubbles," Algeo told show hosts Eddie Fingers and Rocky Boiman. "The air bubbles form in the lava. A pumice rock can consist of up to 90 percent air bubbles. That allows it to float. It's actually less dense than water."
News accounts suggested the pumice island could help the imperiled Great Barrier Reef. But Algeo said any benefits would be short lived.
"It might have a very positive short-term influence," he said. "A lot of marine organisms can latch onto these pumice fragments. You might repopulate some corals in the Great Barrier Reef from pumice floating in. But the main stresses on the Great Barrier Reef are much greater than that."
Algeo said half of the reef has died because of recent warming of ocean currents.
As for the pumice island? Algeo said once the gas escapes from the rock, the pumice eventually will sink to the ocean floor.
Featured image at top: Lava from an eruption pours into the ocean. Photo/Buzz Andersen/Unsplash
Related Stories
UC Foundation reveals 2025 philanthropy winners
October 27, 2025
The University of Cincinnati Foundation recognized its Outstanding Philanthropic Volunteer Award honorees at the George Rieveschl Recognition Dinner on Oct. 23, 2025.
UC team unveils Wyandot Removal Trail across Ohio
October 24, 2025
Rebecca Wingo, an associate professor of history and director of the public history program in the University of Cincinnati’s College of Arts and Sciences, is featured in a WVXU story about new historical markers honoring the Wyandot people—the last Indigenous nation forcibly removed from Ohio.
John Updike called his letters dull. They’re anything but.
October 23, 2025
James A. Schiff, founding editor of The John Updike Review and UC English professor, edited Selected Letters of John Updike, the first comprehensive collection of the author’s correspondence. Drawing from thousands of letters spanning Updike’s life, Schiff offers new insight into the writer’s personal and literary world. The volume was edited by The New York Times.