THERMAL ACTIVITY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21265, 20 February 1931, Page 9

THERMAL ACTIVITY.

A NEW GEYSER. ' AN AWESOME SPECTACLE. (Special to Daily Times.) AUCKLAND, February 19. A large geyser, described as being like a miniature Waimangu, broke out in the Wairakei Valley to-day, according to advice received in Auckland. This new centre of thermal activity is just off the Pink Terraces, in Geyser Valley, and, like practically all the other geysers in the valley, it plays with almost uncanny regularity every four hours. Yesterday it shot large quantities of mud and stone into the air to a height of about 150 feet. The geyser, as yet unnamed, is said to provide an awesome rather than a beautiful spectacle, but if it continues to play it should add another interesting sight to this unique locality. Nobody at Wairakei has any knowledge of a geyser having played from this spot before. It is also reported that there has been considerable activity in the crater of Ngauruhoe during the last few days. A dense volume of black smoke has been seen rising steadily into the sky quite frequently. Volcanic activity in one centre of the thermal region is generally accompanied by either increased or dim- | inished activity in some other local--1 ity. Activity at the hot lake on the : summit of Ruapehu at the Ketetahi Springs on the slopes of Tongariro, and I in the crater of Ngauruhoe frequently varies in this manner.