WAIMANGU'S GIANT FORCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16979, 16 April 1917, Page 8

WAIMANGU'S GIANT FORCE

GREAT CRATER TOIvMED. TEI till L'YTING DI S'J'U RBANCE. WIDE AREA DEVASTATED. No I. since the eruption of Tarawera in. 1836, when tho famous pink aud whito torraces w-ero destroyed, has tho thermal region experienced £>uch a disturbance as that which commenced early an Sunday morning, and which is still raging with only slightly less violenco (says Wednesday's New Zealand Herald). So tremendous has been the disturbance that tho configuration and contour of tho country in tho vicinity of the old Waimangu crater, is changed to such an extent that it will now be hardly recognisable to many people who visited the region in times past. Old Waimangu itself, which was considered a giant geyser, fades into insignilieanco when compared with the tremendous activity which is now going on all over the well-known Frying-pan Flat, and also in an area that was outside tho Flat itself.

Iho whole of tlie Frying-pan Flat has disappeared. Numerous mounds, cones, and blow-holes have been formed, and to-day, tho area of thermal activity is double the •size of tho former small valley, whoso warm and steaming surface, though weird and uncanny, was regarded as safe to walk on in most parts. DEPOSIT 100 FT DEEP. 1° venture nearer tho sceno of tho actual disturbance than 300 or 400 yards, is to invite disaster, for deep fissures and 6mall chasms and ravin-es, havo opened up, and a further change in the formation of tho country in tho vicinity is expected to tako place. The original entrance to Fryingpan Flat has' been built up by deposit Vnnr t<xl S n" co Sunda y> to , a height 0 f at least 100 ft. Tho valley leading away from tho flat, in a southerly direction, towards tho eminence on which tho ruins of the accommodation house now stand, has been considerably altered in appearance and built up by layers of deposit to a far greater height.

On Tuesday a south-easterly wind was blowing, driving to somo extent the clouds of steam towards Lake Rotomahana at the back, and an opportunity was taken by Guide Alfred Warbrick to more closely examino the area in eruption. He is of opinion that tho activity displayed is not merely thermal. It is a volcanic disturbance, except that there is no flame. Half the material being ejected is dry, but in other parts liquid matter is being thrown forth. The area that formed tho original Frying-pan Flat now. resembles a huge crater, in which there aro several smaller craters or blow-holes. i

So far as the clouds of steam permitted the guide to observe the affected area, thero appeared to bo five large blow-holes. One is on the south side, a larger ono is on the north-west side, another faces tho oast, and two faco the north. The latter two were Violently aotiyo on Sunday, and throw hug© stones and boulders of moderate size to an estimated height of 3000 ft. From each and several of the blow-holes shots aro constantly taking place, some reaching a height of fully 800 ft and 1000 ft. ' SUBTERRANEAN FURY. . lc . spectacle is most weird and awelnspirmg. The throbbing of the earth's surface, tho thunderous roar as steam, mud, and stones are sent hurling hundreds r>f ieet into tho air, the dense clouds of steam are r.erve-racking to tho onlooker. Tho whole scene suggests the unknown forces of Nature in a fury. Tho long-pent-up forces of subterranean Nature are at work in a inanner that is terrifying, and the escape of ™ tr 3' is causing fearful havoc. Gibraltar Rock is still standing, but in a very exposed position. The hill at the back of tho rock lias either been blown 01 has crumbled away. The western hill, f tho foo; of" which stood tho old bathnoilse, has also been blown away to a con-iio-eraolo extent, and tho position of tlie mil is now fujly 150 yards to the westward trom its original position. The bathhouse Ins been entirely demolished, and the site on which it formerly stood is now almost in the centre of .the huge crater formed over Frymg-pan Flat. The old Waimangu Geyser, which lies to tho south and contiguous to tho present scene of activity, is quiet. Echo crater, in which there lias been a small lake for ra ??I 7 CiIR - 13 also quite normal. Wild devastation has been inflicted over a large area of countryside, extending from Waimangu in a fan or funnel shape towards the Rainbow Mountain. The blast of superheated air, accompanied by a torrent of steam, mud, sand, and stones, travelled up the valley leading from the old Fryingpan i'lat. The accommodation house was just within the radius of tho tempest on the right-hand side. Had the house been situated a chain and a-half to tho west it would have escaped the torrent, although, probably, •it would not have esiaped destruction. WITHERING TEMPEST. Experts aro of the opinion that what was actually responsible for wrecking the house was a terrific .concentrated blast of -\ery hot air, which was driven up tho valley, and formed a kind of funnel for -its passage. It was this sudden blast that unroofed tho building, broke windows, flung water tanks about like pieces of paoer scorched the vegetation, and spread destruction over everything that faced its withering force. The torrent of debris followed. Ihe house tells its own storv. All that remams is a skeleton of tho "building. Tho roof was torn off bodily, and sheets of corrugated iron and timbers of all sizes and shapes wero scattered in every direction. Impelled by a cyclonic air force, somo timbers are now lying fully a mile from tho ruins of tho house. In its passage through, the air one plank penetrated the front and back walls of an outhouse. The walls of tho houso are coated with a sandy formation several inches thick The roof of an adjacent shelter shed, standing on the brow of a hill, was torn from its fastenings and deposited several feet awav. Six-inch kauri and totara posts which supported tho roof, were snapped into two. Inside tho accommodation house is desolation. Furniture is broken into small pieces, partition walls havo collapsed, whilst everywhere there is a , thick coating of solidified sand and mud.

Vegetation in the immediate vicinity is covered to a depth of several feet. 1 The huge stones ejected have pierced tho covering of debris and sunk out of sight. Many have buret into thousands of pieces on corning into contact with the earth. At the wide end of the fan shape, which extended across. Lake Okaru to a distance of fully thrco miles and a-half, tho earth is lightly sprinkled with a fine powderv material. J THE PLIGHT OF THE M'CORMICKS. It is evident that the first earth shakiri" explosion awakened Mr and Mrs M'Corrnick in tho accommodation house, but tho guide at first took little notice of it, bein" accustomed to tlie sound of Mother Earth's convulsions, or thinking perhaps betwixt sleeping and waking that thunder accounted for the noiso (says tho Auckland Star). At the second rumble, however, Mrs Jil'Cormick got up and went to the window, and' exclaimed, "Oh, Waimangu is playin"-," and almost immediately there came a terrifying uproar, and they were in semi-dark-ness, while heavy stones began to rattle on tho roof. Staking safety under the bed they decided to dress, but hardly had begun to grope for their clothes when a blast of cyclonic force struck the building, snatching off the roof as though it were paper. At the same time tho window crashed in, and they were immediately bathed in scalding steam, which beat furiously against the side of the house.

Tiioir dreadful struggle for life then staked amid an inferno of noise and fallingmud. It will probably ever remain a mystery to Mr M'Gorinick—how any of them survived the frightful , ordeal longenough to escape from their house to the' l-oadwav. By a strange perversity of faie, while the human residents within the stricken area suffered so terribly, a horse in a stable just over the brow of the hill was alive and unharmed when his loosebox was opened, while a number of fowls and turkeys finding refuge were strutting about to-day amid the wreckage 'of their old quarters. Pathetic witnesses remained in and about the ruined accommodation house of the awful suddenness with which disaster overtook the ill-fated family and the frantic haste of their flight." On a' chair by the boy's bed lay a pair of child's knickers and a blouse, where thev had been laid on the Saturday night. "On a ppostill hung a hat belonging to Mrs M'Cormiek, the ribbons and trimmings bv a strange . irony untouched bv the destructive w-elter of mud which lay piled in every part ot the room, and a few yards from the building lay a pair of child's shoos, suekrx? off by the hot ooze and abandoned incontinently in the panic of flight.