Volcano warning system installed

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 1, Issue 6, 12 July 1983, Page 4

Volcano warning system installed

A $125,000 volcano warning system on Mt Ruapehu is now operating for the 1983 ski season. The system was 'tailor made' for the mountain by the Ministry of Works and is believed to be the first of its kind in the world, monitoring a volcano. Tongariro National Park rangers began installation work last December. The system involves two seismometer stations but only one of them is located on top of the mountain. The other is at Mangaku, about 20 kms northwest of Park Headquarters. Both are linked to Park Headquarters near the Chateau. The seismometers will record any volcanic or earthquake activity below. the mountain's Crater Lake.

These readings will be automatically radioed to the computer. If the activity is strong enough the computer will trigger two alarms on the Whakapapa skifield. The alarms have speakers and sirens to warn skiers. Another warning device involves a trip wire which will be slung on the safety fence that currently passes over the Whakapapanui Stream just before the stream over Skippers Canyon. The trip wire will be connected via telephone tines to the computer link at Park Headquarters. It would be expected that a lahar eruption moving down the Whakapapa Stream would pass through and break the trip wire. This would automatically

trigger off the siren alarm at the Whakapapa Village. The system has been installed with a Government grant awarded after the 1975 eruption which showed the vulnerability of skiers and Whakapapa Village during an eruption. There are four courses down which the erupted material will flow. The actual river courses are the Whangaehu on the southern side of the mountain, the Mangaturuturu on the north-western slopes and the Whakapapanui which flows through the skifield and alongside Whakapapa Village. In both 1969 and 1975 lahar eruption material flowed down all four courses. The Whakapapa Skifield is situated on and between the Whakapapanui and Whakapapapaiti streams. The alarm system is not intended to give people time to get off the mountain but rather, to give sufficient warning (6-7 minutes) to allow people to get out oi the major valley areas a^B water courses, down whi^r the erupted material will flow, and onto higher ground. Skiers on the Turoa Skifield should not be in direct danger as the skifield is not on a water course.