VOLCANO IN THE SEA

Taranaki Daily News, 18 October 1927, Page 9

VOLCANO IN THE SEA

FALCON ISLAND UPHEAVAL. A strange phenomenon was witnessed bv the crew of H.M.S. Laburnum on September 7, when the sloop cruised for three hours in the vicinity of Falcon Island, near Nukualofa, which has once more been thrust above the sea by a submarine disturbance. Falcon Island is about 45 miles north of Nukualofa, in the Tongan group. Its existence above water is extremely irregular, the island having disappeared and risen again several times since it was first seen by H.M.S. Falcon in 1865. It is designated on charts as the “site of Falcon Island.” When the Laburnum was at Vavau on October 4 a wireless message was received from Nukualofa to the effect that great columns of black smoke could be seen in the direction of the Faleon Island reef, and the sloop set out for the locality to investigate. Shortly after daylight on the morning of October 7 the vessel was three miles from the island, which was found to have risen above the surface.

Great bursts of smoke were soaring to a height of 3000 feet above sea level, and the volcano was playing at intervals of about 20 minutes. The sloop stood three miles off, and investigations were carried out. It was found the island was almost circular. Its length was about a mile, and it was about 300 feet high at the central point. At each fresh outburst, great masses of cinders and ashes were hurled upward with the dense smoke, and they then fell upon the island in huge cascades. The top of the smoke column disappeared into the clouds. After three hours the warship left the vicinity, but in the daylight it was possible lor many hours afterwards to see the smokeissuing from the crater.

When sighted by H.M.S. Falcon the island was little more than a long reef. Some years later H.M.S. Sappho sighted smoke issuing from the sea, and the island ultimately rose to about 150 feet above sea level. However, it was composed of loose volcanic ashes and the action of the sea finally undermined the coast line until it was reduced to little more than a low streak of black rock in 1894. However, in that year, further disturbances occurred a:.d the island lose again, this time to a height of 50 feet. It was then three miles long and one and a-half miles wide. In 1898 the island was again submerged until only a shoal remained. It had risen by nine feet two years later, but in 1913 had once more disappeared.

H.M.S. Veronica surveyed the locality in 1921, when it was found that only three feet of water covered the reef. In many parts the waves broke over tile submerged island, which was barely covered. An area of very shallow water then extended for about a mile in all directions, which corresponds with the present dimensions of the island. The height attained by the island on the present occasion is exceptiorm l