MORE RUMBLINGS IN MOUNT EGMONT AREA

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28805, 28 January 1959, Page 10

MORE RUMBLINGS IN MOUNT EGMONT AREA

(New- Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, January 27. Mysterious earth rumblings continued to disturb the peace in the Mount Egmont district today. Local residents and geologists differed as to the the probable location and cause. Farmers who reported hearing and feeling the disturbances at various times during the last week are convinced the tremors and sounds originate deep within the cone of Mount Egmont. Geologists, however, say there could be a dozen or more reasons for the rumblings other than the unlikely occurrence of volcanic activity in Mount Egmont, a volcano believdd extinct for the last 350 years;, Both groups agree there is little cause for alarm.

“We had a real beaut this morning,” .said an Okato farmer, Mr J. H. Blizzard, tonight. “It was about 10.30, and there were four rumbles and a light one, strong enough to make the lights swing back and forth.” The tremors have also been noticed by a neighbour, Mr -A. R. Binnie, who said that one rumble was so loud that his wife thought a car or truck had come up' the drive to their house and hit it.

Both men said the rumblings had come from the western side of the mountain.

Neither farmer would- agree with a suggestion by Mr G. G. Atkinson, chief ranger for the Egmont National Park Board, that the real cause of the rumblings was blasting of tree stumps in the district.

“We do enough blasting around here to know the difference between blasting and earthquakes,” said Mr Blizzard.

A Wellington seismologist, Mr George A. Eiby, thought, however, that blasting might be the cause. He said blasting could be very deceptive. On the other hand, it could be sounds carried anywhere from 10 to 50 miles by an abnormal weather condition.

Rumblings from Ngauruhoe had been clearly heard in Taranaki before, and had even been heard in Upper Hutt, said Mr Eiby. There had been similar false alarms from the same district, and it was now “a question of someone crying wolf.’’

A leading vulcanologist, Mr J. Healy, of Rotorua, said the last time the rumblings occurred they had been traced to Ngauruhoe. “These sounds can be carried

for miles without being heard at intermediate points,” said Mr Healy from Auckland tonight. “The sounds go up, hit a layer, and are deflected down, miles away.” Mr Healy, who is with the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research at Rotorua, said he could offer no suggestion as to the cause of the present disturbances.

“It could be seismic activity, it could also be Ngauruhoe,” he said. “Then, it could be related to Egmont itself.” Mr Healy said that climbers had smelt sulphur on Mount Egmont recently, but if this was due to action inside the mountain it would be reasonable to expect to see steam issuing from the slopes. He doubted whether there was any connexion between the smell of sulphur and the rumblings.

Mr Healy said that if Ngauruhoe had been active over the last week, it would account for the whole thing. An official at the Chateau Tongariro tonight said:—“No, Ngauruhoe is as quiet as a dormouse. There hasn’t been a peep out of it for months.”