WAIMANGU'S GIANT FORCE

Otago Witness, Issue 3293, 25 April 1917, Page 7

WAIMANGU'S GIANT FORCE

GREAT CRATER FORMED. TERRIFYING DISTURBANCE. WIDE AREA DEVASTATED. Not sinco tho eruption of Tarawcra in 1886, when tho famous pink and white terraces wore destroyed, has tho thermal region experienced such a disturbance as that which commenced early on Sunday morning, .ana which is still raging with only slightly lees violenco (says Wednesday's New Zealand Herald). So tremendous has been the disturbance that tho configuration and contour of tho country in tho vioinity of the old Waimangu crater, is changed to such an extent that it will now be hardly recognisable to many people who visited tho region in times past. Old Waimangu itself, which was considered a giant geyser, _ fades into insignificance 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 the Flat itself. , The whole of tho Frying-pan Flat has disappeared. Numerous mounds, cones, and blow-holes have been formed, and to-day, the area. of thermal activity is double the size of tho former small valley, whose warm and steaming surface, though weird and uncanny, was regarded as safe to walk on in most parts. DEPOSIT IOOFT DEEP.

To venture nearer the- scene of the actual disturbance than 300 or 400 yards, is to invite disaster,-for deep fissures and email chasms and ravines, have opened up, and a further ohang© in the formation of the country in tho vicinity is expected to tako place. The original entrance to Fryingpan "Flat has been built up by deposit ejected since Sunday, to a height of at least 100 ft. Tho valley leading;' away from the flat ? in a southerly direction, towards the eminence on which the 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 strong south-easterly wind was blowing, driving to some extent the clouds of steam towards Lake Rotomahana at the back, and an opportunity was taken by Guide Alfred Warbrick to more closely examine tho area in eruption. Ho is of opinion that the 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 i 3 being thrown forth. The area that formed the original Frying-pan Flat now resembles a huge crater, in which there are several smaller craters or blow-holes.

So far as the clouds of steam permitted the guide to'observe tho affected area, there appeared to be five largo blow-boles. One is on the south side, a larger one is on the north-west side, another faces tho east, and two face the north. The latter two were violently active on Sunday, and threw huge stones and botilders of moderate size to an estimated height of 3000 ft. From each and several of * the blow-holes shots are constantly taking place some reaching; a height of fully 800 ft and 1000 ft: SUBTERRANEAN FURY.

The spectacle is most weird and aweinspiring. Tho throbbing of the earth's surface, the thunderous roar as steam, mud, and stones are sent hurling hundreds of "feet into the air, the dense ciouds of steam are nerve-racking to the onlooker. The "whole scene suggests tho unknown forces of Nature in a fury. The long-pcnt-up forces of subterranean Nature are at work in a manner that is terrifying, and the escape of energy is causing fearful havoc. Gibraltar Rock is still standing, but in a very exposed position. The hill at the back of tho rock has either been blown or has crumbled away. The western hill, at the foo; of which stood the old bathhouse, has also been blown away to a considerable extent, and the position of the hill is. now fully 150 yards to the westward from its original position. The bathhouse has been entirely demolished, and tho site on which it formerly stood is now almost in the centre of the huge crater formed over Frying-pan Flat. The old Waimangu Geyser, which lies to the south and contiguous to the present scene of activity, is quiet. F»cho crater, in which there has been a small lake- for many years, is also quite normal. Wild devastation has boon 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 tho valley leading from the old Fryingpan Flat. The accommodation house was just within the radius of the tempest on the right-hand side. Had the hou:>e been situated a chain and a-half to tho west it would have escaped the torrent, although, probably, it would not have escaped destruction. WITHERING TEMPEST. Experts are of the opinion that what was actually responsible lor wrecking the house was a terrific concentrated blast of very hot air, which was driven up the valley, and formed a kind of funnel for its. passage. It was this sudden blast that unroofed the building, broke windows, Hung water tanks about like pieces of paper, scorched tho vegetation, and spread destruction over everything that faced its. withering force. The torrent of debris followed. The house tells its own'story. All that remains is a skeleton of the building. The roof was torn off bodily, and sheets'of corrugated iron and timbers of all sizes and shapes were scattered in every direction. Impelled by a cyclonic air forco, some timbers are now lying fully a mile from the ruins of the house. In its passago through the air one plank penetrated tho front aiici back walls of an outhouse. Tho walls of the house ara 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 foot away. Six-inch kauri and totara posts, which supported tho roof, were snapped into two. Inside the accommodation house is desolation. Furniture is broken into small pieces, partition walls have collapsed, whilst everywhere there is a thick coating of solidified sand and mud. Vegetation in the immediate vicinity is covered to a depth of sevevnl feet, The hugs atones ejected have pierced thy covering of debris and sunk out of eight. Many have burst into thousands of pieces on coming into contact with tho earth. At tho wido end of tho fan chape, ivhich

extended across Lake Okaru to a distance of fully three miles and a-half, the earth is lightly sprinkled with a fine powdery material. THE PLIGHT OF THE M'CORMICKS.

It is evident that the first earth shaking explosion awakened Mr and Mrs M'Cormick in tho accommodation house, but the guide at first took little notice of it, being accustomed to the sound of Mother Earth's convulsions, or thinking perhaps betwixt sleeping and waking that thunder accounted for tho noise (says the Auckland Star). At the second rumble, however, Mrs M'Cormick got up and went to the window, and exclaimed, "Oh, Waimangu i 3 playing," and almost immediately there came - a terrifying uproar, and they wcro in semi-dark-ness,'- while heavy stones began to rattle on the roof. Sleeking 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 we're immediately bathed in scalding steam, which beat furiously against tho side of the house. Their dreadful struggle for life then started amid an inferno of noise and falling mud. It will probably ever remain a mvstery to Mr M'Cormick —how any of them survived the frightful ordeal long enough to escape from their house to. the roadway. By a strange perversity of fate, 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 wore strutting about to-day amid tho wreckage of their old quarters. Pathetic witnesses remained in and about tho ruined accommodation house of tho awful suddenness with which disaster overtook the ill-fated family, and the frantic haste of their flight. On a chairby tho boy's bed lay a pair of child's knickers and a blouse, where they had been laid on the Saturday night. On a peg still hung a hat belonging to Mrs M'Cormick, the ribbons and trimmings by a strange irony untouched by the destructive welter of mud which lay piled in every part of the room, and a few yards from the building lay a pair of child's shoes, sucked off by the hot ooze and abandoned incontinently in the panic of flight.