Rogue Geyser Erupts

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30284, 9 November 1963, Page 10

Rogue Geyser Erupts

(N.Z. Press Association) ROTORUA, Nov. 8. Rotorua’s rogue geyser in Whittaker road erupted into new activity at 4.15 p.m. today, creating a new bay in Lake Rotorua, off the veranda of the house on the property and disintegrating a garage. The explosion hurled more than 1000 cubic yards of mud and rocks 60 feet in the air. A steam cloud, which resembled an atom bomb mushroom. was visible for miles. 'Die house, owned by Mr W. V. Byrns, is now under-

mined about nine feet at one corner. Accurate measurements are impossible as no-one dares go near the crater which is now slightly more than 30 yards wide. Workmen were tipping large rocks into the hole less than an hour before the eruption. Fortunately no-one was near the geyser when it erupted. An attempt win be made tomorrow morning to remove two cars in a garage attached to the house. They belong to Mr Byrns who is flying from Australia this week-end. Mr J. Healy, Government vulcanologist, said this evening that the geyser was “quite likely to bang up again,” but the violence would probably be reduced. Mr Healy said the 80 cubic yards of rock tipped in-

to the hole could have spread the blast over a wider area than if no filling had been attempted. Mud was spattered up to 80 yards from the centre of the eruption. The centre appears to have been midway between the two previous outlets. The explosion removed a bank several yards wide between the hole and the lake. Mr Healy said for its type the explosion was not a large one. A similar eruption at Waimangu, 15 miles south of Rotorua, in 1917 destroyed a house half a mile away. Mr N. Johnson, who was in charge of the filling operation, said the geyser was not likely to blow again in the same place. It could erupt within 100 yards of the centre of today’s explosion, however.