EARTHQUAKE GUSHES.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18532, 14 July 1922, Page 8

EARTHQUAKE GUSHES.

FOUNT AIN-LIKT; PHEN OMEN A. WATER FORCED TO SURFACE. WONDERFUL SIGHT NEAR TAUPO. (Correspondent N.Z. Herald). TAUPO. July 11. Two local residents who were out j on a pig-hunting trip in the Wha- j kaipo Bay locality on Friday had an | interesting experience. J ust after i reaching the spot where the earth- j quake fault, previously reported, I crosses the track, about four miles from Taupo, they felt the sharp ■ shake which was felt here, and at t Oruanui, Waitakei, Mokai, and To-1 kaanu, at 10.27 a.m. Coming out I on the flat country a few minutes later they were met by a. most unusual sight. There suddenly spout- I ed up out of the ground several columns of discoloured water, some of which were as high as a shot gun, with which the astonished observers measured them. Hardly had they done so when another group was seen to break forth a short dis- I tance away. In a few minutes! dozens of groups of these fountains were observed, and as the pig-hunt-ers resumed their ride the whole flat at the other side of the hills | west from Taupo presented a won- ! derful sight". These “gushers” were undoubted- ! ly the same type as the springs I described in my report on this 10-1 cality previously, the sharp earthquake just before the observers | reached the spot having forced more i water to the surface.

The water ejected was quite cold and not chemical to the taste, as was evidenced by the readiness with which the pig-dogs drank it? lapping from the top of smaller spouts, as though quite used to drinking-foun-tains. There were hundreds more of these fountains spurting up iu the shallow water near the beach, and from the hills west of the bay the observers had a splendid bird'seye view of the curious sight. The little Mapara stream, which rises in a swamp in the flat country back from the beach, was running mtUth higher than usual, and was all muddy with the sudden rush of water. On their return journey the two hunters found that the “gushers” had ceased playing. On Sunday I again visited Whakaipo, making the trip by boat and going all along the cliffs on the west of the bay. I had a splendid closeup view of the great slips of rock that have come down, finding that both their numbers and also their size were greater than 1 had thought after seeing the cliffs from Whapaipo beach last week. In places hundreds of tons of rock have swept down, leaving not a vestige of the bush formerly clothing the lower portions of the cliffs. One small pebbly beach, near the Masons’ Rock, which was a favourite picnic spot with visitors, had been almost completely buried beneath huge piles of rock which had come down from a height of 300 ft. I Rowing along the Whakaipo beach la few' yards from the water’s edge, I observed on the lake bottom, plainly visible through the crystal-clear water, the freshly made crater-like holes formed by the “fountains” mentioned above. There were hundreds of these, a few from 3ft. to sft. in diameter, and 3ft. in depth, but the majority a few inches only. Since the sharp shake at 10.27 a.m. on Friday there has been a period of quiet. There was a good shock on Sunday morning, and a few very slight tremors, and a couple of light shakes early yesterday morning, but the disturbance seems now to be coming to an end.