Monday 6 August 2012

Mt Tongariro erupts

WOW my love of geology has  been excited this morning with the news on the radio that this mountain down south of me, Mt Tongariro has erupted. Its only a small eruption which is good, and there is currently no sign that anyone has been hurt. The last time it erupted was in 1897 and so this one is quite exciting. the defence force has advised that nobody go sightseeing (damn, I needed an excuse to get a gas mask) and a no flight zone is in place. this is certainly exciting and I hope that nobody is hurt and that it remains that way!

more news later, I am not in any danger here. The only volcanoes I need to worry about are Auckland to the north which could spread ash down here and Taupo which is a super volcano, which is near Mt Tongariro, but if Taupo goes you'll all hear about it, if not have to worry about it!

4 comments:

  1. Good to hear no one was hurt, any pictures?

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  2. Of course, you are surrounded by volcanoes, Gowan: The Auckland volcanic field comprises hundreds of little fellows; there's White Island in the Bay of Plenty; Taupo last erupted they think about 1800 years ago - the world's largest eruption in the last 7000 years, and the thing is NOT extinct (apparently has a decent eruption every 1000 years or so, which suggests it must be nearly due... erm...). We probably ought not to discount Taranaki. It last erupted in 1755, I gather.

    I used to live in North Taranaki, but now live in Christchurch, under the Banks Peninsula volcanoes. They last erupted during the Miocene. The most recent eruption was from Mt Horrible, near Timaru, and that was well over a million years back. So no worries there, eh?

    Cheers,
    Ion

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    1. yeah hense the shakey iles. I got top of lvl1 geography last year, my father was my teacher and even though he scrutinised me harder than anyother person I have ever met I still managed to do well. I have a keen interest in volcanoes, when most kids were watching their favourite spongebob episodes on video over and over again, I was watching videos about volcanoes and blackholes, and whirlpools but that dissapeared

      so I was (am) not your average kid didn't know the volcanoes on banks peninsular erupted so long ago. as for Taupo the white clay from which our town gets it's name are compressed pumice from the pyroclastic flows from the last large eruption. in short if it goes my blog post will be a simple "bye"

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  3. Good to know nobody was hurt.
    I watched the news about the eruption but it was only that day, then the TVs "forgot" the issue. Well, I suppose that's good, it means that there's no tragedy to report! :s

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