Saw this on the news this morning and hope all you guys in NZ are OK :wave:
My heart goes out for the Kiwi's, Earthquakes, Mining Disasters and now a Volcano eruption, lets hope no one is hurt and this thing doesn't get any worse.
Quote from: newportnobby on August 07, 2012, 08:36:09 AM
Saw this on the news this morning and hope all you guys in NZ are OK :wave:
Just a small one by NZ standards e.g. the big bang that created Lake Taupo, which is quite large!! :hmmm: Brian
It's a mere sneeze (ash-ooo) :beers:
Actually, a mere sneeze is actually quite an accurate reflection of what happened yesterday. Tongariro is the northern most of three Volcanoes in Tongariro National Park, and also the smallest. The last time it erupted was in 1897. The others being Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu. Taupo was a much bigger volcanoe in its time, but exploded quite violently in what, as far as I am aware is possibly the biggest Volcanic Eruption in history!
Being in Auckland, I am nowhere near the event, particularly with the prevailing Westerly wind. However, if it does go off, and the wind shifts Southerly (which is quite unusual), then things could get interesting.
Flights to Napier, Gisborne, Palmerston North, Whakatane, and Masterton were disrupted yesterday, Napier being cancelled all day. However, just as Air New Zealand was starting to recover, one of their subsidiary airlines Eagle Airways grounded their entire fleet of Beechcraft Raytheon 1900D's, which virtually took out all the lower level Regional Network after discovering hairline cracks in one of them. Not a good day for Aviation! :hmmm:
Hoping its not been very bad for any parts of NZ and alll will soon be back to normal
Quote from: kaiwhara on August 07, 2012, 05:44:06 PM
Taupo was a much bigger volcanoe in its time, but exploded quite violently in what, as far as I am aware is possibly the biggest Volcanic Eruption in history!
Probably depends what source you get the info from, but from what I can see it doesn't even rank in the top 10 ;)
Biggest in recorded history was Mt. Tambora (Indonesia) in 1815 which frankly made the infamous Krakatoa eruption of 1883 look like a pimple being squeezed! Krakatoa only ranks number 9 and that echoed round the globe four times and caused weather havoc and crop failures worldwide! :worried:
Paul
The below page shows the Oruanui eruption of Lake Taupo 26,500 years ago was the largest known volcanic event in the last 70,000 years, and the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences via their Geonet page confirms this. The most recent eruption 1800 years ago was the largest in the last 5000 years.
http://geonet.org.nz/volcano/activity/taupo/about.html (http://geonet.org.nz/volcano/activity/taupo/about.html)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oruanui_eruption (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oruanui_eruption)
Wow, looks like it was a bit of an event that one! :o
It's like Top Trumps this :D
I did say in recorded history though, obviously there have been many far bigger eruptions back when the Earth was a more active and fiery place. Thanks for posting the links, fascinating subject volcanology.
Paul
It was in recorded history though. Both the Chinese and Romans wrote about it in the same year!
Top Trumps this all right, but thats what makes it fun :P
Just goes to show New Zealand is a very interesting place in terms of both Geography and Geology!
If something the scale of the most recent Taupo Eruption were to happen nowdays, I would say that would be Bye Bye New Zealand, and hello mass famine and goodbye to a good chunk of the worlds population. The effect would be massive globally, far and away excceding Krakatoa and that horribly unpronouncible and impossible one to spell one in Iceland!
We don't do things by halves here ;)
Quote from: Sprintex on August 08, 2012, 07:57:51 AM
Wow, looks like it was a bit of an event that one! :o
It's like Top Trumps this :D
I did say in recorded history though, obviously there have been many far bigger eruptions back when the Earth was a more active and fiery place. Thanks for posting the links, fascinating subject volcanology.
Paul
At least the current volcano kindly waited until they'd finished the filming for the forthcoming Hobbit films :laugh:
Paul
Quote from: Sprintex on August 08, 2012, 12:27:23 PM
At least the current volcano kindly waited until they'd finished the filming for the forthcoming Hobbit films
If it had been more considerate it would have gone off during the end of Lord of the Rings :bounce:
Well, Mt Doom was the volcano next door, Ngauruhoe!
Quote from: kaiwhara on August 08, 2012, 06:01:56 PM
Well, Mt Doom was the volcano next door, Ngauruhoe!
Of course we all know that Lord of the Rings was a cover up... the bizarre story at the end about Gollum and the ring that has no witnesses followed by the mysterious way Frodo was able to kick a wizards backside in the return to the shire all speak volumes ;) ;)
(actually there is a superb book which takes another different slant on it
http://ymarkov.livejournal.com/270570.html (http://ymarkov.livejournal.com/270570.html))
Quote from: EtchedPixels on August 08, 2012, 08:30:55 PM
Of course we all know that Lord of the Rings was a cover up... the bizarre story at the end about Gollum and the ring that has no witnesses followed by the mysterious way Frodo was able to kick a wizards backside in the return to the shire all speak volumes ;) ;)
Almost as bizarre as Father Ted kicking Bishop Brennan up the arse :smiley-laughing:
Where's nz again? :P
Quote from: 1936ace on August 08, 2012, 10:45:19 PM
Where's nz again? :P
To the east of what we call the West Island of New Zealand :unimpressed:
Quote from: 1936ace on August 08, 2012, 10:45:19 PM
Where's nz again? :P
Middle Earth of course!! :P
Paul
Hey K, it may as well be there are enough of you lot here, I have even got one on my fire crew. As they say what's the capital of New Zealand? BONDI :P :wave:
Cheers mate
Bart
Looks like Tongariro has erupted again - Geonet about to advise the media. Ruapehu is showing elevated signs of activity as well - could be having fun in the Central North Island shortly...
Pic from 20minutes ago...
(http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y262/kaiwhara/tongarirotemaaricrater.jpg)
Wow - are there any people affected?
Quote from: Pengy on November 21, 2012, 06:27:30 AM
Wow - are there any people affected?
A few, the Desert Road is closed and Air New Zealand have a few disrupted flights to the East of the mountain - all regional flights. The eruption was minor, lasted 5 minutes, and didn't eject any hard material if you discount some ash. There was a school group and a few trampers on the Tongariro Crossing who have all been evacuated successfully, no injuries or fatalities. The Tongariro Crossing reaches about 2km away from the Te Maari Craters at its closest point so an eruption of this magnitude does not pose much significant threat unless the wind was blowing that way, which it wasn't thankfully.
However this eruption has caught everyone, GNS, Civil Defence, the Government completely with their pants down, and it wasn't their fault either. There was literally no warning whatsoever. The Siesmographs only started recording activity when the eruption itself started up - in other words the Public knew more about it than GNS did. By stark contrast, Augusts eruption had a number of small earthquakes associated with it before the eruption, so we had a pretty good idea it was coming. Ruapehu - a much bigger nearby volcano is currently displaying similar acticity so an eruption (unrelated to Tongariro as it is off a different vent system) is expected from there at some stage. The kind of activity seen at Ruapehu currently is not unusual for a small scale eruption such as that seen in 2007, and is not likely to be an event of the magnitude of the spectacular 1995 eruptions, or the Crater Lake Collase, subsiquent Lahar that washed away a bridge which lead to the Tangiwai Rail Disaster of Christmas Eve 1953 with the Night Limited plunged into the flooded Whangaehu River. This was the first time the Queens Christmas Speech was bradcast from outside the UK, only a few kilometers from home in Auckland, New Zealand, and included a message of condolance, sympathy and solidarity with the people of (what was then) the Dominion of New Zealand.
Watch this space! We certainly are...
Hope things calm down without incident.
Dave G
G'ay mate, how close is this one to your place
Bart
Quote from: 1936ace on November 21, 2012, 10:13:02 AM
G'ay mate, how close is this one to your place
Bart
I'm about 300 kilometers from this one, Tongariro is in the Central North Island just south of Lake Taupo. Auckland is up norf!
Really sorry our Kiwi Brothers across the ditch are copping it from all directions, here's hoping things will settle down for you.
Back in 1956 my parents were thinking about emigrating to NZ, that was until they found out about the earthquakes and such, they chose Oz instead which turned out to be a safer choice, at least at the moment but these days who knows?.
Take care, Kiwis, and stay safe :thumbsup:
Stay safe guys (and girls)...
Interesting that the Rangipo Desert Road was closed... is it open now? Did anywhere (and I'm thinking of Ohakune) cop any ash?
Quote from: bealman on November 22, 2012, 08:10:55 PM
Interesting that the Rangipo Desert Road was closed... is it open now? Did anywhere (and I'm thinking of Ohakune) cop any ash?
The Desert Road (as State Highway 1 is called between Turangi and Waiouru) was on the same side as the direction of Ash Fall which was towards the East. In the event there wasn't a lot of that either so it was reopened a few hours later. Ohakune and National Park are on the other side so they were fine, and the trains on the NIMT kept running without interption.
I havn;t caught up with our Papers from today yet but it sounds like GNS are advising they are expecting another eruption within a fortnight from Tongariro, and they are still keeping an eye on Ruapehu...
Quote from: daveg on November 21, 2012, 07:34:22 AMHope things calm down without incident
Bright, sunny and warm down here in the South Island and the earth hasn't moved - recently :(
Quote from: kiwi1941 on November 23, 2012, 08:23:38 AM
Bright, sunny and warm down here in the South Island and the earth hasn't moved - recently :(
In saying that it does appear as though Christchurch is finally starting to settle down, which is good. Even a decent aftershock now isn't all that big, as opposed to the 5's and 6's they were getting down there for a while.
That February Earthquake last year was quite an experience - one that I will never forget. Poor timing for me to go on a months holiday in the South Island, I had no car for 11 days, and even then I didn't know whether it still existed or not - I wasn't too far off claiming insurance on a write off. I can't say I have ever actually actively gone home to have a holiday - it was quite weird!