WAIMANGU IN A FURY.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 April 1917, Page 7

WAIMANGU IN A FURY.

FRYING PAN FLAT DISAPPEARS. DEPOSIT 100 FEET DEEP, A special reporter of the New Zealand Herald, who has visited Waimangu since last Sunday's furious outburst, describes the scene as follows: "So tremendous lias been the disturbance that the configuration and contour of the country, in tlhe vicinity of the old Waimangu crater, is changed to such an extent that it will now be hardly recognisable to many people wlio visited the region ill times past. Old Waimangu itself, which was considered a giant geyser, fades into insignificance when compared with the tremendous activity which is now going 011 all over the well-known Frying Pan Flat, and also an area that was outside the flat itself. The whole of the Frying Pan Flat has disappeared. Numerous mounds, conea, end blow-holes have been formed, and to-ilay, the area of thermal a-tivity is double the size of the former small valley, whose warm and steaming surface, though 'weird and uncanny, was regarded fts safe tq walk on in most parts. * TOPOGRAPHY. OF LOCALITY, : CHANGED ; To venture nearer the scene of the actual disturbance than 300 or 400 yards is to invite disaster, for deep fissures and small chasms and ravines lmve opened up, and a further change in the formation of Wie country in tho vicinity is expected to take place. The original entrance to Frying Pan Flat lias been built up by a deposit since Sunday to a h-ight of at least 100 ft. The valley leading away from the flat, in a southerly direction., towards the eminence on which tho ruins of the accommodation house now stand, has been considerably nltered in appearance and built up by layers of deposit to a far greater height. To-day (Tuesday) a strong southeasterly wind was blowing, driving to some extent tlie clouds of steam towards Lake Rotomahana at the back, and an opportunity was taken by Guide Alfred Warbriek to more closely examine the area in eruption. He is of opinion that the activity displayed is not merely thermal. It is a volcanic disturbance, except that thero is 110 flame. Half the material heing ejected is dry, but in o'ther parts liquid matter is being thrown forth. The area that formed the original Frying Pan Flat no.w> resembles a huge crater, in whioli there are several smaller craters or blow-holes.

■So far &3 the clouds of steam permitted the guide to observe the affected area, there appeared to be five largo blow-holes. One is on the south sidft a larger one is on the north-west side, another faces tho east, and two face the north. The two latter wore violently active 011 Sunday, and t/hrew huge stones and boulders of moderate size to an estiuir.ted height of 3000 ft. From each and several of the blow-holes shots are constantly taking place to-day, some reaching a height of fully 800 ft and IOOOIt. SUBTERRANEAN FURY. Ihe rpectacle is most weird and aweinspiring. The throbbing of the earth's surface, the thunderous roar as steam, mud, and stones are sent hulling hundreds of feet into the air, the dense loudi, of steam are nerve-wracking to 'io onlooker. The whole scene suggests , the unknown forces of Nature in a fury. The long pent-up forces of subterranean Nature are at work in a manner that is truly terrifying, and the escape of energy is causing fearful havoc. Gibraltar Rock is still standing, but in - very exposed position. Tlie hill at the back of the rock has either been blown or lias crumbled away. The western hill, at the foot of which stood the old bath-house, has also been blown away to r. considerable extent, and the position of tho hill is now fully ISO yards to tlie westward from its original position. The bath-house has been entirely demolished, and tilie site on which it formerly stood is now almost in the centre of the huge crater formed over Frying Tan Flat.

The old YVaimangu Geyser, which aes to the south and contiguous to the present scenes of activity, is quiescent. Echo crater, in which there has been a small lake for many years, is also f[uite normal. Wild devastation has boon inflicted over a large area of countryside), extending from Waimangu in a fan »r funnel shape towards the Rainbow. Mountain. The blast of superheated air, accompanied by a torrent of steam, mud, sand, and stones, travelled up the valley leading from the old Frying I'an Flat. The accommodation house was just within tii© radius of the tempest on the righthand side. Had the house been situated a chain and a half to tihe west, it would have escaped the torrent, although probably it would not have escaped destruction. WITHERING TEMPEST. Experts are of the opinion that what was actually responsible- for wrecking the house wns a terrible concentrated blast of very hot air, which was driven up the valley, and. formed a kind of funnel for its passage. It was this sudden blast Wiat unroofed the building, broke windows, flung water-tanks about, scorched the and spread destruction over everything that faced its 'withering force. The torrent of debris followed. The house tolls its own story. All that remains is a skeleton of the building. The roof was torn off bodily, and sheets of corrugated iron and timbers of all sizes and shapes were

scattered in every direction. Implied by a cyclonic air force, some timbers are now lying fully one mile from the ruins of the house. In its passage through the air one plank penetrated the front and baok walls of an outhouse. The walls of the house are coated with a sandy formation several inches thick. The roof of an adjacent shel-ter-shod, standing 011 the brow of a hill, v,as torn from its fastenings and deposited several feet away. Six-inch kauri and totara posts, which suported 1 he roof, were snapped in two. Inside the accommodation house is desolation. Furniture is broken into small pieces, partition walls have collapsed, whilst everywhere there is a thkk coating of solidified sand and mud. PKEVIOUS ACTIVITIES. The Waimansjj geyser, 17 miles from Rotorua, wlueli erupted on Sunday last, has been thf centre of interest for thousands of visitors to the Hot Springs district for some years past. The narrow ' gorge in which the geyser an.i its attendant phenomena are situated was created by the eruption of Tavav.eri 011 June Hi. 1880. Its existence was difc- ! covered by Dr. Humphrey Haines and Mr. J. A. Pond, of .lackland, early in February, J.9UO. Its periods of activity » —■—"-a* "■«*».Qm-ri-"- 1

ment lias photographic evidence that in IUO3 a "shot" reached a height of IfiOOft. Tile geyser has been known to. play as many as 50 times in one morning, several of the shots going 4>oo or 500 ft high, tt was the scene of one tragedy. On the afternoon of August .'JO, IDO3. four spectators who were watching Waimangu from a spur within 4'svds of the crater, were overwhelmed and lost 111 an eruption of boiling mud and water, the most terrifile seen up to that time. The victims were Misses Katherine and Ruby Nicholls, of Canterbury, Mr. David McNaughtoiii, of Ponsonhy, and Mr. Joseph Warbriek, brother of the guide, Mr. Alfred Warbriek. About three weeks prior to this fatality Guide Warbriek and Mr. H. E. Buckeridge had crossed the surface of the geyser in a small boat, when they measured and sounded the pool. It was then 48ft at its greatest depth, 80yds wide, and 134ytls long. Waimangu became dormant .shortly after the disaster of August, 130.3, owing it was thought, to tho sudden reduction of Lake Tarawera. Subsequently there were four or five phenomena in connection with the geyser. The first was in 1012, when a blow-up occurred in the eastern end of the Echo crater flat, on which the boiling pool, known as the Frying-pan, was situated. ' The effect was to leave a small circular pool of 'boiling water, which was sometimes mud-colored and sometimes green. OUTBREAKS OP 1914 and 1915. The first real sign of any thermal disturbance indicating fresh outbreaks in this region took place on January 28, 1014. On that day a comparatively small hole was suddenly blown in tho raupo flat imodiately eastward of tlio cliff, upon the summit of which stands the Waimangua shelter shed, and the concave side of which forms the eastern enclosure of the boiling lake known as the Inferno. This hole continued active until the further eruption of April 12, 1015. It "shot" for hundreds of feet into the air at intervals, and during February 1915, ''shots" took place nearly every day. The consequence was that what) was once a flat across which visitors were in the habit of walking, where cattle used to graze, and on .which residents' of the district frequently went rabbit shooting, had to be tabooed as unsafe. It was in February, 1915, that a blow-out was observed from Waimangu House in that corner of the Fryingpan, or Eclicj, crater flat, which is directly to the east of Gibraltar Hill, and alongside the old bath building. Mud and stones were hurled into the air to a height estimated at 400ft|. This outburst left a boiling lake of mud and water. 100 ft by 80ft in extant, while it caused the bath-house to sink with its foundations 4ft or oft, and covered its roof with a deposit of whitish mud about Ift deep. The various phenomena at Waimangu from 1910 to 1915 led to the gradual enlargement of the Frying-pan Lake. At the former date it measured about 14 square feet and contained water an inch and a-half deep, and of about 140 degrees. At the end of tho five years named the lake had grown to OS square feet, with 7in depth of water, the temperature of which was 187 degrees The heat in the whole of this area was so intense that it could be felt through the soles of stout boots. last Serious upheaval Considerable havoc was created by the eruption of Waimangu at 2 p.m. on April 12, 1915, when the old crater near the blowhole, 011 the Frying-pan side of the old Waimangu crater, suddenly became tilie 3ceno of activity. The effect was to blow out a large new crater of from 90 to 100 square yards, leaving a steaming fissure where the old blowlioie was. The first "shot" sent the debris 100,0 ft high, and when it ceased 20 mud "boilers" appeared, throwing mud 30ft high, besides which there were seven great steam holes from which the steam was emitted, at great pressure. Some of tho sand and mud sent up in the first explosion was carried as far as Lake Rotomahana, 3'/s m " C3 away. The inner side of the crater walls were fractured in many places, and the debris was thrown all over the surrounding hills an eighth of an inch thick. The old track to the blow-liole was practically carried away, and the fence which formerly ran across from the blow-hole, along the wail to the former geyser, to the southern cliff, was demolished. Tho old geyser was filled up, terraces of dust deposit being created and a bank formed over the old pathway. On this occasion at the accommodation house, in wUiieli Guide McCormiek and his wife resided, tho ground was felt to tremble and all the windows in the building shook. MINOR OUTBURSTS IN 1915. There have been only two outbursts of note at Waimangu since April, 1015. The first was on November 5 in that year, when there was a single "shot" of three of our minutes' "iiration. A column of mud, water, and steam rose 200 ft or 300 ft. A cavity 60ft across was formed, and Frying-pan flati, nioit of which ihad been banned as unsafe, was almost blown away. The last activity at the geyser took place on the following day, when there were three displays. A new crater 40yds across was blown out near Gibraltar Rock by the fust 'shot." Since that date the geyser has been virtually quiescent. Gibraltar Rock is near the blow-hole on the right-ihand side of the Frving-pan flat, going towards the accommodation house. The latter was of modern design, and was erected some years ago. It was situated more than half-a-niile from the Frying-pan flat, and some hundreds of feet above it. ,