VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS

Kumara Times, Issue 3006, 22 June 1886, Page 2

VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS

THE NORTHISLAND.

We give to : tfay further interesting details from our East Coast exchanges of the volcanic calamity at Tarawera the disappearance of the Pink and White,Tprraces, a ( .estimates of mafcier convulsion. " It will he seen, that all hope -regarding the Terraces is now abandoned, and it is stated that the vicinity of the Pink Terrace is occupied by volcanoes, twelve of which are in active eruption, in a line of about nine miles long. Some daring and adventurous attempts hare been made to explore the new wonders of the district, of which, perhap Sj the following was thfe most successful :

B.OTOB.VA, June 17. A party which started to-day for Rotomabana early in the morning returned at seven o'clock chis evening.' It consisted of Messrs G. M. Reidj Duthie (manager of the Tanranga branch of the National Bank), Mercer, and Humphreys. They rode till they reached the belt of mud, when they tethered their horses. .They then took off their boots and clothing, save their drawers and singlets, and entered the mud glacier, three miles broad. To their surprise they came on a layer of ashes which bare their, weight. Mr Mercer tore up his shirt to make sandals for their feet. They got to the back of the Pink Terrace, after having travelled over dangerous ground, fissures gaping in the earth and steam coming out in various directions. They confirm the statements alreadv telegraphed as to the principal changes in i he country. The Terrace was gone. There was a new geyser at Rotomahanaj throwing np stones, sjtuated at the extreme south end. From the point where the White Terrace stood all along the range to the Devil's. Cauldron was clean blown out of existence and at the back of the Porridge Pots', Old Lime Geysers, Devil's Cauldron! and the White Terrace was a steep precipice. The surface material was blown off the cliff, exposing the inner rock face of the mountain. The scene at their feet from the back of the Pink Terrace was indescribable. They could have thrown a stone into the crater, and as the smoke lifted tbey could see the bottom of the lake, seething and spouting boiling mud in all directions. From near Okaro to Tarawera the whole valley was simply rent in two, the vast cleft being in the form of the letter S. From the base of Tarawera proper to the summit they saw a similar cleft, and various minor spurs adjoining presented the appearance of being rent in two, and standing agape like leaves of a book. In return. iu« to the point where the horses were tethered they noticed the fissures they passed in the morning had considerably widened and fresh ones were found. At one point a steam hole formed behind them.

Two of the Tuhourangi Natives at Ariki have providentially escaped the fate of tbeir fellows. They are Mahaka Taheka and his wife. On the evening l.efore the eruption their child met with •u. accident. They went on to Dr. Qinders, at Rotorua Hospital, to attend | to the injuries, thus saving the lives I of the three. ESTIMATES OF HATTER EJECTED. The following i 3 the extent of couuiiy affected as far as is known, hut the information, of course,.rests to a lar°e extent upon conjecture :—An area of 2000 s-quare miles is covered with three inches and more of dnst. About twenty miles square is covered mostly to the depth of 3ft and more, for 400 square miles, therefore, the country i 8 probably totally destroyed, and 1600 square miles; is much damaged, the ultimate effects largely depending on the problem whether there is any fertilising property in the deposit. I think the eruption is confined to a volcano a mile or two in diameter on the east side of Tarawera Mount, and a huge boilin« lake six or eight miles in diameter*, rroui near Tarawera to Okoro Lake taking in Rotomahana and the terraces! A Tauianga correspondent writes :_! " I have made a careful estimate of the Btuff ejected during the oruption. It amounts in rouud numbers to ■5,000,000,000 cubic yards, weighing 3,000,000,000 tons, which is after all not quite one cubic mile. It seems a small cavity, but it would take more than she amount of the national rfeM. oi England !o excavate it. ft would take one good workman one million years to shove! the stuff ftom the ground into carts, y,. t „|| WMg deposited

shows glittering particles v of mica and little pieces of transparent white crystals. Sanguine people imagiue they have found gold and diamonds, and are anxiously awaiting analysis."