[Geography Notes] on Pumice Pdf for Exam

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

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.