Ngauruhoe eruption continues

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33442, 25 January 1974, Page 3

Ngauruhoe eruption continues

(N Z. PrcsV Association) HAMILTON, January 24. Mount Ngauruhoe continued to erupt every two to three hours today. The Tongariro National I Park Board reported eruptions between 9 and 10 last i night, a large eruption at’

4 a.m.. and continuous ash eruptions today. The slopes are strewn with (boulders 2ft to 3ft in diameter. A board official said heavy cloud limited visibility of the summit. D.S.I.R. geologists are keeping a 24-hour watch on .the mountain from their base at the Chateau and from a temporary observation point . which has been established in the Mangatepopo Valley, at (the base of the mountain. Samples of the boulders (hurled from the crater have been collected from the valley, but it is too dangerous for scientists to go further up the mountain. The samples will be sent, to Wellington. A sample of ash has already been forwarded to the Geological Survey. Scientists hope to; learn whether the boulders are new lava or old rock. A D.S.I.R. geologist at Turangi. Mr B. D. Hegan. said today that it was difficult to compare the present 1

i activity with the previous large eruptions. 1 Observations of the mountain had not been as systematic in 1954, but it appeared ' that at that eruption, lava ■ rose to the top oT the crater. . Scientists who flew over ' Ngauruhoe yesterday saw no ..sign of lava yet, he said. , A warning has been issued t by the park board to people i in the area drawing their. i water supplies from rainwater. The ash has not yet! . been analysed. ■ An eruption at noon yes- . terday was described in. some reports as the most; violent since 1954. but a D.S.I.R. vulcanologist who has been in the district since 1946, Mr J. Healy, of Rotorua. called the activity so far “relatively piddling.” “The eruptions of 1949 and 1955. after the 1954 lava flows, were much more, powerful,” he said. “Ngauruhoe erupted, or had series of eruptions, 59 times between ( '1839 afftl 1959. The only (

■ lava flows were m 1870. 1949. and 1954.” Mr Healy flew over the volcano with other scientists yesterday morning, and after the flight he said a lava flow was unlikely in the present phase of activity. “The activity now is unlike the activity before the 1954 lava flows,” he said. “The crater has to fill with lava before there can be a flow, and this filling is usually a pretty quiet process, unlike the present activity.” Warship arrives— Further (naval reinforcements for the Games arrived on Wednesday morning at Lyttelton, when the Royal Australian Navv’s fleet training destroyer Anzac entered harbour. The Anza< is carrying 22 young officeron a sea training exercise. Boxing.—The fonnei world welter-weight boxing champion. Billy Backus iVnited States), beat Roger Zami Franeei in Pam when Zami retired in the ninth round of their scheduled 10-round bout.