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Pumice

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Last updated date: 25th Apr 2024
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What is Pumice?

Pumice is a volcanic rock, which in powdered or dust form is called ‘pumice.  This rock has a feature of a highly vesicular rough-textured volcanic glass, which might contain crystals. The rock has a typical light-colored context. There is another volcanic rock known as Scoria which is different from this Pumice rock, the Scoria rock has larger vessels, thicker vesicle walls, and also it is darker in color and denser inconsistency.

Pumice is created when the rock is super-heated. The rock is formed in highly pressurized conditions, being violently ejected from the volcano. While due to simultaneous rapid cooling and rapid depressurization the rock gets its unusual foamy configuration.  

Pumice Rock

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Pumice is a very light and porous volcanic rock that forms during the explosive eruptions of the volcano. During the volcanic eruption, the volcanic gases dissolve in the liquid portion of viscous magma, and then it expands very rapidly to create a foam or a froth. The liquid part of the rock is called the froth which quickly solidifies to glass around the gas bubbles. The volume of the gas bubbles present in this rock is generally so large that the rock is lighter than water and thus it floats in water. 

Pumice is a textural term for a type of volcanic rock which is a solidified frothy lava that is composed of highly microvesicular glass pyroclastic with very thin, this is translucent bubble walls of extrusive igneous rock. This is commonly, but not exclusively of a silicic or felsic to an intermediate in composition (e.g., rhyolitic, dacitic, andesite, Pantelleria, phonolite, trachyte), but the occurrences of this basaltic and other compositions are also known. The pumice is pale in color while ranging from white color or cream color or greyish in shade, also they can be green-brown or black. The rocks form when the gases exsolving from the viscous magma which nucleate the bubbles and cannot readily decouple from the viscous magma after chilling into the glass. Pumice is also a common product of explosive eruptions (Plinian and ignimbrite-forming) this commonly forms zones in the upper parts of silicic lavas. The Pumice has an average porosity of about 90%, and initially, the rock floats on water.

Pumice Uses 

  • Pumice is an important rock for the industrial mine industries which is used to produce superior-quality cement and a lightweight, isolating for the building materials.

  • Pumice is a very light weighted porous and abrasive material that has been used for quite a few centuries in the construction and the beauty industry as well as in early medicine. 

  • This is also used as an abrasive, in polishes, or the pencil erasers, and the production of stone-washed jeans.

  • This is abrasive in conditioning the "stonewashed" denim.

  • This rock is an abrasive in the bar and liquid soaps such as the "Lava Soap"

  • Works as an abrasive in pencil erasers.

  • The rock is abrasive in skin exfoliating products.

  • It works fine in the abrasive used for polishing.

  • Also used in a traction material on snow-covered roads.

  • A traction enhancer in the tire rubber.

Pumice Stone Meaning 

A pumice stone is a piece of pumice that is used in rubbing over the skin to clean the skin or make it even or smoother. Also, the term ‘pumice’ is an uncountable noun.

Pumice is a type of grey stone that is formed from a volcanic eruption and this is very lighter in weight which can be rubbed over the surfaces mainly the skin which is required to make it smoother.  

Is Pumice a Igneous Rock?

Pumice is a kind of igneous rock with a foamy texture. The name is derived from the Latin word which is "Pemex" this means "foam" and being evident of history this has been given many other names for its formation was unclear. In earlier times it was called "Spuma Maris", which means froth of the sea in Latin word, as it was a frothy material that was thought to be a hardened sea foam. 

FAQs on Pumice

1. What is a Volcanic Rock?

Ans. The Volcanic rock is also called an extrusive rock which is one type of magmatic rock also known as the igneous rocks, this is a condensate product of a type of extrusive magma which forms after diagenesis and the compaction, which differs greatly from the sedimentary rocks in the forming the conditions, environments, and the distribution. Igneous rocks. The Rocks are then broadly classified into three groups – igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. 

  • Lava is a solidified to rock. 

  • Basalt. 

  • Andesite. 

  • Rhyolite.

This Pumice is also a type of extrusive volcanic rock, this is formed when lava with a very high content of water and the gases are discharged from a volcanic eruption. This Pumice is a type of pyroclastic igneous rock that was liquid at the moment of effusion and then it rapidly cooled that there was no time for the rock to crystallize. 

2. What do you mean by Porosity?

Ans. Porosity is defined as the quality of a porous substance, or which is filled with tiny holes. In earlier period there are porosity stems, this comes from the Greek word porous for "pore" that means the “passage.” This means porosity substance lets things through them.

Porosity is a type of material that has accessible voids that are permeable to liquids or through gases. 

To be more specific, the porosity of a rock is a measure of the rock’s ability to hold fluid in them. 

3. Where is Pumice Rock found?

Ans. This is frequently found in the deposits that are discovered in the deeper portions of the ocean floor, this is a common occurrence in the abyssal red clay. The large oceanic deposits of pumice are to be explained by the submarine volcanic eruptions, as well as the distribution of these floating pumice by the sea winds and currents. Pumice is found all across North America including on the Caribbean Islands.