GAY Guysers-Gazette-Issue3.pdf

Shortly after midnight on the morning of10 June 1886, a series of more than 30increasingly strong earthquakes were felt in theRotorua area and an unusual sheet lightningdisplay was observed from the directionof Tarawera. At around 2:00 am a largerearthquake was felt, followed by the soundof an explosion. By 2:30 am Mount Tarawera’sthree peaks had erupted, blasting threedistinct columns of smoke and ash thousandsof metres into the sky. At around 3:30 am, thelargest phase of the eruption commenced;vents at Rotomahana produced a pyroclasticsurge that destroyed several villages withina 6 kilometre radius, killing an estimated150 people.The eruption was heard clearly as far away asBlenheim and the effects of the ash in the airwere observed as far south as Christchurch,over 800 km south. In Auckland the sound ofthe eruption and the flashing sky was thoughtby some to be an attack by Russian warships.The eruption also buried many Māori villages,including Te Wairoa which has now becomea tourist attraction, aptly named The BuriedVillage. Approximately 2 cubic kilometresof tephra was erupted, more than MountSt. Helens ejected in 1980. Many of the lakessurrounding the mountain had their shapesand areas dramatically altered, especially theeventual enlargement of Lake Rotomahana.Continued over...guysersgaystay.comGuysers Gazette 17