NOTHING RED-HOT

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 52, 30 August 1945, Page 8

NOTHING RED-HOT

REPORT ON RUAPEHU

SCIENTIST UNCONCERNED

Mr. Horace Fyfe, field geologist on the staff of the Geological Survey, who has returned to Wellington after observing the activity at Mount Ruapehu during the past thre eweeks, states that he did not feel a single earthquake tremor while he was there. The explosive outbursts from the crater, he said, were often accompanied by loud detonations which apparently were heard as far away as Hawke's Bay. On the other hand, detonations that were heard at Ohakune had not been heard at the Chateau Tongariro. The air blast that accompanied the detonations rattled windows and gave the impression of an earthquake, and that led many people to believe that there had been shocks. On returning to Wellington he made inquiries at the Dominion Observatory, and was informed that there had been no seismograph record of any earthquakes at the sub-station near Wairoa, Hawke's Bay. "There have also been reports of redhot boulders being ejected from the crater," said Mr. Fyfe, "but I saw nothing of the kind, nor any red-hot lava in the crater, the surface of which now consists of a mass of rubble derived from the rock shot to pieces by the explosive outbursts. Hot rocks have been ejected, but no red-hot rocks to my knowledge. The majority of the rocks fall back into the crater."

Mr. Fyfe did not think there was any possibility of an overflow of lava from the crater, which is now of an average depth of 80 feet below the lowest point of the rim. The cooling effect of steam expansion is keeping the lava too viscous to rise, and it is consequently being shot away as fine ash.

The rumbling that is heard on occasion, Mr. Fyfe said, is quite a normal feature of volcanic outbursts of this type, and there was no necessity for apprehension in regard to such noise, nor the detonations.

Commenting on reports of glowing clouds at night, Mr. Fyfe said that such effects were due to electric discharges generated by the movement of the hot ash in the steam cloud and definitely could not be attributed to glowing lava.

A conference in Wellington yesterday was attended by the director of the Geological Survey (Mr. M. Ongley), the former director (Dr. John Henderson), and Professors Cotton, of Wellington, and Bartrum, of Auckland, and Mr. Fyfe, and all aspects of the activity were considered. The conference agreed, Mr. Fyfe said, that the eruption was proceeding normally and gave no cause for alarm. It was impossible to say how long the activity would continue—it might go on for a year, or for five years.

Mr. A. Beck, of the Geological Survey staff, is still at Ruapehu.