Well, if you're thinking the difference between "bone-in" and "boneless", that's not right. This is an "-ite", i.e., a mineral (actually, well, a rock) -- it's an igneous rock. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about it:
Boninite
Two key things here:
"The rock is named for its occurrence in the Izu-Bonin arc south of Japan", and
"Boninite is considered to be a primitive andesite derived from melting of metasomatised mantle."
So while there are lots of other kinds of "-ites" found erupting from volcanoes modernly, boninite has never been found erupting -- until now. The remarkable underwater eruption footage of the West Mata underwater volcano near Tonga was accompanied by sampling -- and it turns out that West Mata is erupting boninite!
And that's really interesting because it's never been seen before.
OK, that's cool, and I've beaten Klemetti to it.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
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