SMOKING MONSTER

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12454, 24 May 1926, Page 6

SMOKING MONSTER

NGAURUHOE VOLCANO LIKE A GIGANTIC FORGE SPECTACLE AT NIGHT (By Telegraph—Special to “Times.”) AUCKLAND, May 22. The volcanic action of Mount Ngauruhoe is marked by a certain degree of regularity according to the observations of Mr C. P. Worley, who spent this week at Tongariro National Park with a .party of Mount Albert Grammar School boys. Mr Worley says that Ngnuruhoe’s action is like that of a gigantic forge. It is as if some subterranean vulcan operates bellows and sends the breath of life through a banked fire. A red hot funnel is bored up through the lire and fiery ashes and smoke and dujt are blown high into the air. Then th® vulcan takes his hand from the bellows, the crater falls in, and the banked forge smokes sulkily until the bellows are again applied. That is a fanciful image, but it applies most exactly to the action of Ngauruhoe as described by Mr Worley, if the scale be taken as several thousand times larger. Mr Worley and his boys had four beautifully clear days and nights to observe the mountain, and on one occasion they even ascended part of the final cone. It was a unique occasion for all concerned, and every one of the party wak .keen to study the habits of the smoke-crested monster raising its head so high above the land. SERIES OF EXPLOSIONS Most of the time the mountain is quiescent, but about once every hour according to Mr Worley’s observation, a hidden hand is on the bellows, and the elemental forces are unloosed. Generally there are three gigantic explosions or shots at short intervals up to five minutes. Sometimes there are as many as seven shots at these periods of activity. The explosions are marked by quantities of red hot rocks of size, which are shot hundreds of feet into the air. These rocks can be singled out even at a distance of six miles, and by a rough calculation. Mr Worley estimated that some of them would be the size of a small house. Along with them the crater emits volumes of steam massed with fine dust which blows off with a great roarnoise. Three of these shots generally follow each other in quick succession. Then it is as if the crater caves in upon itself, and the subterranean fires are banked. A quiet period of about an hour supervenes while a dense pall ot black smoke from the crater spreads its sinister shadow. Then the hand is again at the bellows, and tlje vent is blown clear. The.shots recommence and the whole process goes the full wheel again. At night the spectacle was a glorious oqe. So much so in fact that Mr WorW says that some of his boys could not tear themselves away from it, but remained outdoors in the clear frosty night until they caught colds for their pains. GLOWING CARPET A succession of shots would throw masses of red. ;hot- material thousands of feet into the air, and on their descent they shattered into'.' a glowing red carpet covering the slopes sometimes for more than half way down the mountain. Extensive masses of this ejected spoil collected in one deep valley, and as they rolled down they gave the appearance of a lava flow, although Mr Worley said that no actual lava was emitted. Some of the material was semi-molten. This on landing broke up into thousands of pieces. Mr Worley and some of the boys chose a quiet hour last Tuesday to vclimb a short distance up the final cone, but it was not considered safe to proceed too far.

As showing how far the boulders are thrown the party came on a lot of newly-ejected cinders on the adjoining peak Tama. These were still fresh and dry, and were the shattered remains of the great boulders, reduced by their tall to fragments the size of peas. A tremendous shot was fired by Ngauruhoe when the party was in Rift Valley close to the final cone. One enormous boulder was shot more than halfway down the mountain, leaving a long dark smoking trail behind it. The party of 25 schoolboys with two masters stayed at the Whakapapa huts, six miles from the volcanic cone, but even there .they were perforce to be , U s presence owing to the rattling of window panes during the explosions.