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GEOLOGY
ON POST STAMPS |
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Nowa Zelandia /
New Zealand
Różowe
Terasy koło Rotomahana na Nowej Zelandii, produkt gejzerów i gorących źródeł;
znaczek wydany w roku 1898.
Pink Terraces, Rotomahana in New Zealand, formed by geysers and hot springs; the stamp
issued in 1898.
Różowe
Terasy, obraz Charlesa Bloomfielda namalowany w roku 1890.
Pink Terraces,
painting by Charles Bloomfield, 1890.
Volcano: Mt Tarawera
When: 10 June 1886
Where: Mount Tarawera, Central North Island
What happened:
- One of the most popular tourist attractions in New Zealand was the Pink
and White Terraces, which lay at the foot of Mount Tarawera, in the heart of
the volcanic plateau of the North Island.
- Visiting tourists stayed at the Rotomahana Hotel in the village of Te
Wairoa. From there they were carried by boats across Lake Tarawera to Te
Ariki village, and after walking to Lake Rotomahana, they were paddled in
canoes to the foot of the terraces.
- On 1 June 1886, a party of tourists claimed to have seen a Māori war
canoe appear out of the mists on Lake Tarawera. It was being paddled by Māori
in traditional dress, and disappeared when only half a mile from the tourist
boat.
- A tohunga or Māori priest in Te Wairoa claimed that it was a waka
wairua, or spirit canoe, and that it was an omen of a great calamity, which
would strike the land.
- On 10 June, early in the morning, people were wakened by violent shaking
of the ground. Outside the sky was lit up by lightning flashes
- Eyewitnesses later reported that Mount Tarawera had split open, and that a
huge column of fire could be seen shooting up into the air and forming a
black cloud of smoke and ash.
- Molten rocks were flung out of the volcano, landing in the lake with a
hiss.
- Just before 2.00 am the sky darkened again. A rain of rocky ash and mud
fell from the huge black cloud. People watching took refuge in the houses
and whares of Te Wairoa.
- The ground kept shaking, and a hail of ash and hot mud struck the village.
Some houses, with their inhabitants still inside, were buried. Other houses
were left empty as their owners fled the village.
- One of the two buildings to survive the eruption was the whare of a Māori
guide, Sophia. More than 60 people sheltered there during the night. The
other building was the runanga or meeting house.
- At the Rotomahana Hotel, the inhabitants had to first leave one room when
the roof collapsed under the hail of ash, rocks and mud, and then the entire
hotel. One guest died when the hotel veranda collapsed but others made it to
safety in the guide's whare.
- The schoolteacher and five of his family were buried under tons of mud and
ash. Others in the house managed to escape and sheltered for the rest of the
night in a chicken house.
- About 6.00 am the flood of ash and mud from the sky eased, but it remained
dark for another two hours.
- When survivors came out of the shelter, they found that the village of Te
Wairoa had been buried under a sea of mud.
- As they were making their way to Rotorua 16 kilometres away, they were met
by a rescue party. The male survivors turned back with this party to Te
Wairoa, while the women and children kept on to Rotorua.
- For some days the rescuers dug through the mud and ash. The
schoolteacher's wife was found alive, and the tohunga who had predicted the
disaster was also dug out alive, but he died soon afterwards.
- A rescue party also headed across the lake to check the other settlements.
They found the villages of Te Ariki and Moura both buried completely under
the volcanic mud. Lake Rotomahana had disappeared, leaving a valley of
craters, steaming holes and pools of hot mud.
- The Pink and White Terraces had been completely destroyed, broken or
buried under tons of lava. The surrounding hills were covered in ash and
mud.
- There were no survivors in the two buried villages of Te Ariki and Moura.
How many died: 153 estimated (15 at Te Wairoa)
Other events and outcomes:
- Before the eruption Mt Tarawera consisted of three peaks. The first peak
to erupt was the Wahanga peak, furthest to the north, at about 1.30 am. This
was followed by the middle and highest peak, Ruawahia, and then the most
southern, Tarawera.
- The roar of the eruption was heard hundreds of kilometres away, even as
far as Christchurch and Auckland.
- It was estimated that more than 2 billion cubic yards of ash were
scattered over an area of more than 6000 square miles. The surrounding
Tikitapu bush was reduced to skeletal remains by the ash. Other areas of
forest were flattened by the blasts as if by a mighty wind.
- Lake Rotomahana gradually refilled the crater blasted apart by the
eruption, and grew to four times its original length, with a water level 30
metres higher than before.
- Mt Tarawera still stands on part of the series of fault lines, which forms
the Pacific "ring of fire". Today there are 10 craters along the
line of the rift that split Tarawera.
- The village of Wairoa has been excavated to show where people lived and
died. The area is ringed in poplar trees that have grown from the fence
posts buried in the eruption.
- The craters of Mt Tarawera at Rotomahana and Waimangu are still active
today.
Pink and White Terraces:
The terraces were formed as water containing silica flowed from the boiling
geysers at the top down the hillside. The water cooled and and a precipitate
converted into the terraces and pools, forming giant staircases or waterfalls.
From: http://library.christchurch.org.nz/Childrens/NZDisasters/MtTarawera.asp
