Boating At 8000 Ft On Steaming Lake

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30847, 4 September 1965, Page 17

Boating At 8000 Ft On Steaming Lake

“The Press” Special Service WELLINGTON Sept. 3. Three Wellington scientists are boating at 8000 ft on the hot and sometimes erupting crater lake on Mount Ruapehu this week. The boat is a 12ft 6in long, sft wide fibreglass craft, chosen after scientific research and investigation as the best material to withstand the sulphurous lake’s grey waters which are near boiling point in places. “Nobody was keen to lend us a £250 rubber dinghy when we were not sure just what effect the water would have on the dinghy,” said a member of the party Mr R. Dibble, geophysics lecturer at Victoria University. “Fibreglass contains a stable plastic which will be most suitable.” There are two other members of the party, Dr. D. A. Christoffel of the university physics department and Mr R. Dewhurst, a geology honours student. The purpose of the three-

man expedition is to carry out a survey on the lake to determine the amount of heat the volcano is emitting and generating. The team will survey the lake’s depths and temperatures with a bathythermograph which will give simultaneous depth and temperature readings. The survey would check on changes which had taken place since the last major eruption in 1945, said Mr Dibble. Then the crater lake had drained away. There had been a subsequent eruption and disturbances last year. The investigation would show its effects.

In the past the lake has attracted some hardy swimmers. It is magnificently surrounded with great snowfields and high peaks in the high clear air. It has been used with beauties in bikinis for tourist publicity purposes. In fact it smells strongly of sulphur. The grey-green water is surrounded by steep cliffs of black volcanic rock under the snow. Stirrings, rumbles and occasional tremors add zest for some but not for the nervous. Underfoot in the water the volcanic mud is soft and deep and sticky, and the water is so acid bathers should not risk head or eyes. Apart from the labour of hauling the 12ft boat up and down the long snow incline to and from the lake from the crater lip, the three Wellington scientists are not expecting a boating picnic.