VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 November 1943, Page 4

VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS

ON OUTLYING TONCAN ’ ISLAND INHABITANTS UNSCATHED BUT FOOD CROPS DESTROYED A volcanic eruption occurred on the Tongan island of Niuafoou on September 26. The British Agent and Consul, Mr C. W. T. Johnson, reported that while there was no loss of life and the eruption was said to have been less violent than has been the case on former occasions, there was widespread destruction of food crops from ash and sulphur spread by wind over the whole island. Salt which fell with heavy rains that followed the eruption was particularly destructive. In a report on a visit to the island, Mr Johnson said: “With the exception of the coconuts and an occasional mango tree all the foliage on the island that I was able to see, and even the grass, was browned and withered. The breadfruit trees, for instance, which were carrying heavy crops of immature fruit, had not one green leaf and all the root crops had been similarly destroyed. “The main cause of this was the heavy deposits of salt which had fallen with the rains. It rained fairly steadily while I was on the island and the rain was still quite salt to taste. A certain amount of damage had also been done by the deposits of sulphur and ash. Although this eruption was stated to be less severe than the one of 1926, the wind in 1926 was blowing off the island whereas this time it was blowing .in the opposite direction, right across it. “There was one main eruption followed by three subsidiary ones, all. of them being concentrated in a comparatively small area some two miles from the south shore of the island and close to the scene of previous eruptions. “Our ship passed about a mile from the shore and we thus had a grandstand view of an unforgettable sight. Masses of molten lava, glowing red even in the daylight, were being thrown up 150 to 200 feet into the air, while at the water's edge was an enormous column of smoke rising thousands of feet from what appeared to be a new submarine eruption. It was no doubt in this column of smoke that the salt deposits were carried into the air, to be brought down again with the rains.

“It was at night, however, when we again passed close by, that we learned what a volcanic eruption really looked like. There were the four main explosions of glowing lava, with fires burning at innumerable points in the surrounding country, and the main flow of lava moying to the sea in a red-hot mass.

“But the most arresting sight at night was the immense, billowing column of smoke with its red glow at the centre, and its vivid blue streaks of what looked like fork lightning flashing continuously hundreds of feet up in the air. “To give a general picture perhaps I might quote a remark I overheard from an American sailor as he stood on the bridge watching the inferno: ‘This makes a fellow think twice about where he might go to when he dies.' ”