Wild Land

Summary: 5.3 metre lahar recorded at Tangiwai flood gauge. Bund protecting spill into Waikato Stream intact. Road and rail traffic suspended in the area. Minor damage. Tephra dam not completely destroyed. Management plan successful.

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The forecast lahar from Mt Ruapehu’s crater lake flowed down the mountainside late this morning.

Since the 1995 and 1996 eruptions, the crater lake on the volcano has risen behind a weak tephra dam which accumulated to a depth of 6-7 metres on the usual outlet on the south-eastern rim of the crater.

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GNS Science issued an alert bulletin for White Island volcano in the Bay of Plenty this morning, following the crater lake reaching the highest temperature ever recorded.

The volcano’s crater lake started rising from its typical temperature of 48-50 ºC in August 2006, passing 60 ºC during January 2007. Recent visits to the volcano have confirmed the continued increase in temperature which is now 74 ºC, the highest temperature ever recorded.

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The camera which takes regular images of the crater at White Island volcano has been replaced, and Dino is once again able to welcome Internet visitors to his island home.

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Work is underway to replace the crater floor camera at White Island following its failure at the end of October.

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The growing threat of a lahar from Mt. Ruapehu’s crater lake has caused minor disruption to travellers on the Desert Road section of State Highway 1 today.

Two days ago, the Department of Conservation announced that the tephra dam, which is preventing the contents of the crater lake from cascading down the mountainside, had started leaking. This afternoon, the lahar warning system was triggered by scientific maintenance work on the volcano, and emergency services swung into action, temporarily closing State Highway 1 to traffic.

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The elevated seismic activity that commenced at Mt. Ngauruhoe in May has continued with about 20 earthquakes being recorded per day.

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An expedition to Mt. Ruapehu’s crater lake today has confirmed that a small eruption occurred at the volcano on Wednesday night.

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A series of earthquakes were recorded near Mt Ruapehu overnight, and a volcanic earthquake at 10:30 p.m. was reported by Geonet.

An attempt to determine whether a small eruption had occurred were thwarted this morning, when bad weather prevented observation from an aircraft.

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Activity at Raoul volcano in the Kermadec Islands has continued to decline and GNS Science have reduced the alert level for the volcano.

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A spectacular collapse of ice and snow into the crater lake has been observed at Mt Ruapehu, according to Hazardwatch.

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The shallow earth tremors being recorded near Mt Ngauruhoe continue at a rate of 10-20 per day, according to GNS Science.

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Hydrothermal activity at Raoul Island has continued, but at a low level, since the March eruption according to a media release from GNS Science.

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Earthquake activity beneath Mt. Ngauruhoe volcano has increased again, according to the latest release from Geonet.

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New Zealand’s Mt Ngauruhoe volcano was recently upgraded to alert level 1 (some signs of volcano unrest) by GNS Science, following shallow low frequency earthquakes in the past month.

The upgrade was a precautionary measure, as the low frequency earthquakes occurring at the volcano can indicate increased movement of volcanic fluids or magma. As part of the upgrade decision, GNS Science decided to undertake additional monitoring of the volcano.

GNS Science issued an alert bulletin based on recent observations late today indicating that activity at the volcano has eased slightly.

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