Volcanic eruption in New Zealand

[1936ace]

Where's nz again? 

[kiwi1941]

Where's nz again? 

To the east of what we call the West Island of New Zealand 

[Sprintex]

Where's nz again? 

Middle Earth of course!! 


Paul

[1936ace]

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
Cheers mate
Bart

[kaiwhara]

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...

[kaiwhara]

Pic from 20minutes ago...

[Pengi]

Wow - are there any people affected?

[kaiwhara]

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...

[daveg]

Hope things calm down without incident.

Dave G

[1936ace]

G'ay mate, how close is this one to your place
Bart

[kaiwhara]

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!

[longbridge]

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?.

[Newportnobby]

Take care, Kiwis, and stay safe

[Jerry Howlett]

Stay safe guys (and girls)...

[Bealman]

Interesting that the Rangipo Desert Road was closed... is it open now? Did anywhere (and I'm thinking of Ohakune) cop any ash?