Mount Tarawera
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| Mount Tarawera | |
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 Mount Tarawera from across Lake Tarawera |
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| Elevation | 1,111 metres (3,644 ft) |
| Location | North Island, New Zealand |
| Coordinates | |
| Volcanic arc/belt | Taupo Volcanic Zone |
| Last eruption | 1886 |
Mount Tarawera is a volcanic mountain 24.1 kilometres southeast of Rotorua in the North Island of New Zealand. It consists of a series of rhyolitic lava domes that were fissured down the middle by an explosive basaltic eruption in 1886, which also killed over a hundred people. The peaks are Ruawahia Peak, Tarawera Peak and Wahanga Peak. The summit is at 1111 metres. The crater of the volcano is a series of chasms, running for 17 kilometres northeast-southwest.
The volcano is surrounded by a series of lakes, many of which were created or drastically altered in the 1886 eruption. These lakes include Lakes Tarawera, Rotomahana, Rerewhakaaitu, Okataina, Okareka, Tikitapu (Blue Lake) and Rotokakahi (Green Lake). The Tarawera River runs northeastwards across the northern flank of the mountain from Lake Tarawera.
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[edit] The 1886 eruption
Shortly after midnight on the morning of June 10, 1886 a series of more than 30 increasingly strong earthquakes were felt in the Rotorua area and an unusual sheet lightning display was observed from the direction of Tarawera. At around 2:00 am[1] a larger earthquake was felt and followed by the sound of an explosion. By 2:30 am Mount Tarawera's three peaks had erupted, blasting three distinct columns of smoke and ash thousands of metres into the sky. At around 3.30 the largest phase of the eruption commenced with a large quantity of ejecta from Rotomahana, in the form of a pyroclastic surge obliterating the Pink and White Terraces and several villages within a 6 kilometre radius.
The eruption was heard clearly as far away as Blenheim and the effects of the ash in the air were observed as far south as Christchurch, over 800 km south. In Auckland the sound of the eruption and the flashing sky was thought by some to be an attack by Russian warships.
The eruption is believed to have killed around 120 people (including seven Europeans),[1] although it is possible that many more people died.[2] The eruption also destroyed the world famous Pink and White Terraces and buried many Māori villages, including Te Wairoa. Approximately 2 cubic kilometres of tephra was erupted,[3] more than Mount St. Helens ejected in 1980. Many of the lakes surrounding the mountain had their shapes and areas dramatically altered, especially the eventual enlargement of Lake Rotomahana, the largest crater involved in the eruption, as it re-filled with water. The rift created during the eruption extends 17 km across the mountain, Lake Rotomahana and through the Waimangu Volcanic Rift Valley.
[edit] The phantom canoe
One pervasive legend of the 1886 eruption is that of the phantom canoe. Nine days before the eruption, a boat full of tourists returning from the Terraces saw what appeared to be a war canoe approach their boat, only to disappear in the mist half a mile from them. One of the witnesses was a clergyman. Nobody around the lake owned such a war canoe.
Though skeptics maintained that it was a freak reflection seen on the mist, tribal elders at Te Wairoa claimed that it was a waka wairua (spirit canoe) and was a portent of doom.
It has been suggested that the waka was actually a freak wave on the water, caused by seismic activity below the lake, but locals believe that a future eruption will be signalled by the reappearance of the canoe.
[edit] Gallery
 View from the north |
 Closeup of one chasm |
 Southwest side |
 Satellite view of Lake Rotorua; Mount Tarawera is in the lower right corner |
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b R. F. Keam (1988). Tarawera. ISBN 0-473-00444-5.
- ^ The official contemporary death toll was 153. In 2007, the General Manager of the Earthquake Commission said that "... Ngati Hinemihi oral accounts put the death toll in the thousands." David Middleton (2007). A Roof Over Their Heads? The challenge of accommodation following disasters. Accessed 2008-04-12.
- ^ Okataina Eruptive History at the Global Vulcanism Program website
