EXTENSIVE BLOW-OUT

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 109, 11 May 1933, Page 9

EXTENSIVE BLOW-OUT

NEW WHITE ISLAND CRATER

EXPLORERS' EXPERIENCES

(By Telegraph.) ' (Special tci "The Evening Post.") /•■■•- AUCKLAND, May 10. ~ News. of an' extensive blow-out, which occurred on White Island last month -has just been received :in Tauranga,. a party .of ten > men who were engaged in exploration work on the island having just returned. The, in en were awakened at 5.15 o'clock'on the morning of Sunday, April' 2, by loud rumbling, which was accompanied by a slight earthquake. TJio ruen jumped from their bunks and : >vere soon outside the building. On looking toward the crater they saw a huge cloud of steam and dust gradually billowing out^ over the top of the hill. Tnis 'cloud reached a very great hejght;,and .was then blown.by the wind in the,direction of Tauranga. An indication of the height of the column is given by the fact that pebbles asiarge as poas fell on the camp buildings. The blow-out continued ( for about an hour, after which the volume of steam diminished. :' . Mr. George West, accompanied by •Mf. 0; C.' Klestou, made an inspection of the active area later in the morning antl * found that practically the whole of Crater Flat, roughly about 800 acres, was'covered with a line blue-grey dust ranging in depth from about 3in to 3ft. The two men were able to proceed as far as Big Donald, the main blowhole on the island, but could not venture beyond that point owing to the heavy sulphurous fumes and hot dust under foot. However, they could see that there was fresh thermal activity in an area that had hithorto been quiescent. Big Donald itself was .blowing up thick dust in place of the usual gas or sttjam, and a new crater had been formed 'about 300 yards away from Big Donald, and almost duo north. In addition to the dust, great quantities of boulders, which had been, thrown from the new blow-hole, were scattered over the adjacent area. Some of the boulders were found on tho plateau 300 feet higher than Crater Flat. :Pp to the time that Mr. West left White Island there had been no more earthquakes or any violent thermal action, but there was a very notice- . able increase in the volumo .of fumes, which .reminded him of the chldrino gas attacks made by the Germans on the Slanders and French fronts.