MT. RUAPEHU ERUPTS

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31120, 25 July 1966, Page 1

MT. RUAPEHU ERUPTS

(Neto Zealand Press Association) NEW PLYMOUTH, July 24. A cloud of steam rose 300 ft above Mount Ruapehu’s crater lake today in the mountain’s biggest steam eruption for 20 years.

Five minutes later a shooting pillar of steam formed an almost perfect mushroom

shape. The mountain continued to give intermittent puffs of smoke this afternoon. At 10.5 a.m. hundreds of skiers and sightseers saw the the cloud begin to rise suddenly from the lake at the mountain's summit. The fol-

lowing plume of smoke rose Ito about 12,000 ft above sea level. | Two Tongariro National Park rangers inspected the crater from the air and later from the ground. Standing only 100 yards from the boiling water, they noticed a strong smell of sulphur and saw a considerable amount of dirty water around the edge of the lake. The Chief Ranger, Mr ,1. W. Mazey, said that there did not appear to be any rise in the lake level and there was only a small flow of water down the Whangaehu river. The last major eruption of the crater lake was in April, 1945, when steam and ash was sent up for several months. There has not been a lava eruption since Europeans came to New Zealand.