Surveyor denied 1895 eruption description

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 14, Issue 650, 20 August 1996, Page 6

Surveyor denied 1895 eruption description

News of rocks be inghurtledfrom Ruapehu's crater may have put settlers off, so early reports of the 1895 eruption denied that anything other than steam and ash had been ejected.

So said George Frederick Allen in his retrospective report to the Canterbury Times, 5 June 1907. The Bulletin was recently shown a clipping of the report which belonged to William (Bert) Sandford, a

well-known early Waimarino resident. The following is the report by Mr Allen: "About noon on Sunday 10 March 1895, occurred an eruption of Ruapehu, the first within the memory of man. After loud reports and rumblings, which the Raetihi and Ohakune set-

; tlers attributed to A u r u h o e ( s i c ) , Ruapehu issued a vast column of steam, esti-

mated by eye witnesses as ascending 6000ft above the summit of the mountain. About the same time the crater-lake was ejected, most of its contents, with mud, ice and snow coming down the Whangaehu River, which became for several days a gigantic sludge channel. At my own home (seventy miles from Ruapehu by the course of the river) the roar of the rapids ceased, and was succeeded by the "flop, flop, flop" sounds made by boiling porridge a substance very similar to which filled the flooded stream. In the course of a day or two this thinned to the consistency of gruel, and soon after to thatofcream. But not only was the Whangaehu flooded (over 4ft at my abode) but con-

siderable portions of the sludge went down the Mangatoetoenui into the Tongariro River and other portions along the Manga-nui-a-Te Ao into the Whanganui, which was soiled down to the sea, over 100 miles. Besides the liquid and semi-liquid contents of the

lake, the crater also ejected g r a v e 1 , stones and rocks (some of the latter

weighing probably a ton) to a distance of over three miles in a north-easterly direction. A statement to this effect was made by three gentlemen — Messrs John Chase, David Sutherland and John Craig — who ascended to the crater two days after the height of the eruption. It was, however, cavalierly contradicted by a Government surveyor who was sent up about a fortnight after, and who reported that "he knew, before inspection, that the account of stones and rocks being ejected was untrue" (!). In spite of this contradiction, I believe the statement of the three gentlemen, all of whom were well known to me, and I succeeded in getting three friends to accompany me to Ruapehu to ascertain the

facts. The weather was terrible, heavy rains and fierce southerly gales prevailing during nearly all the eighteen days we were from home. We made two ascents, but owing to the weather and to the state of the snow on the ridges we failed to complete our climb by about fifty feet. But on the spurs, three miles northeast of the crater, we found ample evidence of the truth of the statement of the three gentlemen as to the ejection of the stones and rocks. We saw scores — nay, hundreds, of new rocks and boulders, clean, sharpedged, and free from vegetation; easily distinguished from the older ones, which were weather-worn and

covered with moss and lichens. Moreover, there were many instances in which re-cently-ejected rocks had fallen

upon old ones and smashed themselves and the otherS to fragments. These fragments were distributed in circles round each pair of smashed rocks, some of those nearest the centre being as big as a bucket while those a chain away were as small as French beans. My friends and I consulted on the spot as to the possibility of these rocks

having been thus broken iri any other way than by collision with one another. Someone suggested frost, but said he did not consider frost could possibly do it. And we all concluded that the statement of Messrs Sutherland, Chase and Craig was established; and in charity to the Government surveyor we supposed that the poor fellow had had instructions from headquarters to minimise the eruption for fear of-frightening preserit or intending settlers. We brought away specimens of the ejected rocks, some of which were given to Mr Drew, of the Whanganui Museum. One remarkable effect of the eruption of Ruapehu on

March 10, 1895, was to block the fissureby which the water from the cra-ter-lake escaped, forming the prin-

cipal source of the Whangaeuhu River. Before the eruption there were two powerful springs, one on each side of a remarkable spur near the crater called the Black Rock. One of these springs, containing sulphate of alumina, was perfectly clear; the other, containing sulphate of iron, was turbid. The streams from the two springs united

just below the end of the Black Rock Spur, and together formed the Whangaehu River, which during the summer months was so impregnated with sulphur, alum and iron that cattle and sheep would not drink it even close to the sea, 117 miles from where it issued from the foot of the mountain below the crater. But after the eruption of 1895 these springs ceased to exist, and the bed of the Whangaehu was practically dry for four or five miles to a point near the tenth mile post on the Wai-o-uru — Tokaanu Road. Here there broke out several strong springs of pure, or almost pure, water. Ever since then the Whangaehu has, with occasional exceptions, continued sweet and free from minerals. About 1898 we first observed inanga (whitebait) fifty miles up, and three years ago eels were first taken in the river. They had always existed in the tributary streams, having travelled to and from the sea when the mineral water of the river was diluted by floods. The occasional exceptions to the Whangaehu now continuing always pure occur when occasionally — perhaps twice or thrice in a year — a small outburst of mineral water occurs from some obscure volcanic action near the crater-lake."

"he knew, before inspection, that the account of stones and rocks being ejected was untrue"

"We saw scores — nay, hundreds, of new rocks and boulders, clean, sharp-edged, and free from vegetation"