RUAPEHU'S ERUPTION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 116, 18 May 1936, Page 6

RUAPEHU'S ERUPTION.

GREAT OUTBURST OF 1895

That all-highest of our lakes, the crater pool in the icy crown of Mount Ruapeliu, has just had one of its periodical explosive fits, ! manifested by a coating of mud on the glaciers and snowfields around it. Fifty years ago, shortly before the eruption of Tarawera, Ruapelni's lake was violently active; and there have been numerous eruptions since. The greatest was on March 10, 1595, when there was an enormous discharge of boiling water from the alpine geyser. A spectator at Taupo, 1 describing the outburst, which occurred on a r clear, bright morning, said from the summit , of Ruapelni "there rose in slow and majestic grandeur a magnificent cloud. Higher and r higher it rose in calm, clear air in one unbroken , column for about 0000 feet. Then the centre . of the shaft became darker and denser, and it was evident that a geyser eruption on an 1 unparalleled scale was proceeding. A few > hours later the lofty column was headed by [ a spreading cloud which opened out on either [ side in mid-air." Nearer to the mountain a great roaring ■ was heard, with a continuous earth tremor, F while the volcano-geyser was emptying its - sulphurous lake. Streams poured down the ! mountainside and flooded Whangaehu > River, and some of the head streams of the ■ Wanganui were also discoloured. ' The most recent eruption of the thermal lake probably took place in the night, for no ' one appears to have witnessed the disturbance of the mountain's normal condition. The lake is usually quietly simmering; some parts of ' it have sometimes been found cool enough to bathe in while, the middle of the sulphurous pool has been steaming. Again, many climbers ' have found the whole surface frozen over. [ Ruapeliu's lake is on such occasions as the - 1895 eruption the grandest geyser spectacle L in the ... world. The tourist traffic to the » Tongariro National Park might be stimulated considerably if these periodical blow-outs could .| be predicted. Possibly they could, if a care- •: ful watch were kept on the crater, for there L are usually premonitory symptoms. There has - also usually been a sympathetic coincidence ;; of activity in the various hot points of the . Ruapeliu-Tongariro group, and it would not . be surprising to hear presently of Ngauruhoe ; rumbling and ejecting ash in one of his occal sional bouts of clearing out his volcanic pipes, —J.C.