A pumice raft is a floating raft of pumice created by some eruptions of submarine volcanoes or coastal subaerial volcanoes.
Pumice rafts from the eruption of Fukutoku-Okanoba submarine volcano in 1986, seen from a ship
A piece of pumice
Satellite image of a pumice raft near Vavaʻu, Tonga, in August 2006
Pumice, called pumicite in its powdered or dust form, is a volcanic rock that consists of highly vesicular rough-textured volcanic glass, which may or may not contain crystals. It is typically light-colored. Scoria is another vesicular volcanic rock that differs from pumice in having larger vesicles, thicker vesicle walls, and being dark colored and denser.
Specimen of highly porous pumice from Teide volcano on Tenerife, Canary Islands. Density of specimen approximately 0.25 g/cm3; scale in centimeters.
Kutkhiny Baty, a pumice rock formation outcrop located 4 km from the source of the Ozernaya River (Lake Kurile), near the southern tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia.
Illustrates the porous nature in detail.
Rocks from the Bishop tuff, uncompressed with pumice on left; compressed with fiamme on right.