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Post Erupted Volcanoes

Walmangu. Monday afternoon, June 16th.

In the afternoon, I visited a nearby site of a volcano that exploded like Mount St. Helene's crater in Washington State, USA. This “extinct” volcano erupted on June 10, 1886. The point of this park was to show you how the environment can recover from such a violent event, plus show you more examples of geothermal activity.

The walk was as well set up ($25 entry fee) as the morning one, except the path was longer (5 Km) and there were extra trails for those who wanted to do some easy climbing.

Most impressive to see what a volcanic explosion can do and create. Huge craters and domes, sulphur lakes and streams, small geysers, simpler plant life and emerging new land forms. Had a leisurely 2 ½ hour walk about. At certain spots there were photos of the same spot taken in November 1886, five months after the eruption. Neat to see how nature puts things back in place. Since the eruption of 1886 there have been a series of less extreme geothermal events, including small eruptions in 1903, 1917, 1924, 1973.

I also learned that annually NZ get 13,000 earthquakes, which is why it is sometimes called the Shaky Island. The Rotorua area is in the centre of all the tension. Also learned that parts of NZ are shifting 30 cm per year, that is a lot. They are expecting a  grade 8 scale earthquake sometime in the next 50 years. If one were on top of their earth science game, this is the place to see it in action.

Such a gratifying day. It did start to rain (it was forecast for the day), but it did not actually start until 2:30 and I was back on the bus and homeward bound at 3. Lucky again.

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