TARANAKI EARTH NOISES

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27563, 21 January 1955, Page 10

TARANAKI EARTH NOISES

POSSIBLE ORIGIN IN NGAURUHOE

METEOROLOGIST SUPPORTS THEORY

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, January 20. After long calculations. Dr. J. F. Gabites, of the New Zealand Meteor rological Service, believes that on at least one day atmospheric condition 9 were favourable for eruption noises to be carried from Mount Ngauruhoe to Taranaki. Noises heard recently in Taranaki have led residents to believe that Mount Egmont was about to erupt. Scientists visited the area, and formed the theory that the noises were coming from Mount Ngauruhoe, and were being deflected from the upper atmosphere Dr. Gabites said that, because calculations took a long time, he had as yet been able to draw conclusions for only one day—Sunday, January 9. On that day, temperatures were favourable and the winds easterly. Ngauruhoe was then active. Though direct sound waves would reach for only a few miles round the mountain, much of the noise would follow an upward, curving path into the atmosphere to a height of 90,000 feet, and would be thrown back to earth 80 to 100 miles to the west, said Dr. Gabites. Sound moving eastward would' not have been deflected back to the ground. Because of the curving path of sound to the west, it would not have been possible to hear the noises in the country between Taranaki and the volcano, Dr. Gabites said. The right conditions for such a phenomenon probably occurred fairly often in summer. The sounds had probably passed unnoticed previously, or had hit the ground where there had been no observers. Dr. Gabites has not made calculations for the other days on which noises were heard in Taranaki, but from a brief survey of the data he believes conditions were similarly ideal for 1 epetitions of such occurrences.