Ruapehu status May 2016

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geoffwnz

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#1551984 13-May-2016 09:37

WyleECoyoteNZ:

We saw Ruapehu steaming back in October...

I may be wrong, but isn't that the Te Maari crater on the side of Mt Tongariro rather than Ruapehu?

Erupted in 2012 and has been steaming ever since.

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geoffwnz

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#1551985 13-May-2016 09:39

Geese: Does anyone know the area well enough to comment on how far along state highway 4 from the south one would have to be to have an unobscured view of the mountain in the event of a (minor) eruption occurring?

That would depend on may factors including wind direction etc.

Plus, given you can't tell if a minor eruption is just a precursor to a bigger one, would you really want to be in range of it anyway? Things could go pear shaped very quickly.

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BlueShift

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#1551991 13-May-2016 09:54

I had a reasonable view of the '95 eruption from my 7th floor office in Hamilton.

Couldn't see the mountain, but the ash plume was very clear.

The ash all over any cars parked outside was also easily seen...

frankv

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#1552181 13-May-2016 13:21

Geese: Does anyone know the area well enough to comment on how far along state highway 4 from the south one would have to be to have an unobscured view of the mountain in the event of a (minor) eruption occurring?

IIRC, you can't see the mountain itself anywhere on SH4 between about Wanganui and Raetihi. Given steep banks and bush, you wouldn't get a clear view of the ash plume either. In Wanganui, you would probably need to be on the top of a hill, or 4th floor of a building, or similar.

FWIW, the ash plume was easily visible from Palmerston North on a clear day.

Marton's main street (Broadway, not be confused with Main St or High St ;) ) points directly at the mountain, and it is clearly visible (on a fine day).

The perfect place, BTW, would be in a small plane overhead Cheltenham at 1500ft. Which is where I was on 25 September 1995.

frankv

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#1552185 13-May-2016 13:27

geoffwnz:

Plus, given you can't tell if a minor eruption is just a precursor to a bigger one, would you really want to be in range of it anyway? Things could go pear shaped very quickly.

Given that Ruapehu is an andesite volcano, eruptions aren't going to be huge. The reason the mountain is there is that it's eruptions don't have enough force to fire much stuff a long way, so it piles up into a mountain. So out of range mostly means not on the mountain itself. Ash of course could potentially land anywhere in NZ, depending on the wind.

OTOH, Taupo, etc are ignimbrite, and tend to be explosive. In this case, out of range probably means 1000km away. And ash could land anywhere in the world.

Geese

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#1552188 13-May-2016 13:32

Thanks frankv, excellent information.

geoffwnz

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#1552189 13-May-2016 13:33

frankv:

geoffwnz:

Plus, given you can't tell if a minor eruption is just a precursor to a bigger one, would you really want to be in range of it anyway? Things could go pear shaped very quickly.

Given that Ruapehu is an andesite volcano, eruptions aren't going to be huge. The reason the mountain is there is that it's eruptions don't have enough force to fire much stuff a long way, so it piles up into a mountain. So out of range mostly means not on the mountain itself. Ash of course could potentially land anywhere in NZ, depending on the wind.

OTOH, Taupo, etc are ignimbrite, and tend to be explosive. In this case, out of range probably means 1000km away. And ash could land anywhere in the world.

I was just looking at it from the same point of view as people who go down to the beach to watch a tsunami coming in. Not the cleverest thing to be doing.

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MikeB4

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#1552190 13-May-2016 13:35

frankv:

geoffwnz:

Plus, given you can't tell if a minor eruption is just a precursor to a bigger one, would you really want to be in range of it anyway? Things could go pear shaped very quickly.

Given that Ruapehu is an andesite volcano, eruptions aren't going to be huge. The reason the mountain is there is that it's eruptions don't have enough force to fire much stuff a long way, so it piles up into a mountain. So out of range mostly means not on the mountain itself. Ash of course could potentially land anywhere in NZ, depending on the wind.

OTOH, Taupo, etc are ignimbrite, and tend to be explosive. In this case, out of range probably means 1000km away. And ash could land anywhere in the world.

We were there during the eruptions in the 90's and both the Desert and National Park Roads had a lot of ash the was it. Even on the mountain we did not encounter anything big. There were lava bombs emitted but that was closer to the crater.

Fred99

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#1552227 13-May-2016 14:46

Never say never. While eruptions of Ruapehu have been relatively small for NZ (largest historic eruption was in 1996), it's been around for a couple of hundred thousand years, and 10,00-20,000 years ago had some large plinian eruptions. It's extremely unlikely it'll happen again within a human lifespan - but anything is possible. Nothing may come at all of the present heightened activity - it might just die down again until next time. There are certainly far bigger and more immediate volcanic and seismic hazards in NZ in terms of probability within human lifespan. Keep in mind that Christchurch got flattened by a one in 10-20,000 year event on an unknown fault.

1eStar

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#1552306 13-May-2016 16:55

If it's a clear day you can get some good vantage points for viewing the mountain on SH3 between Bulls and Wanganui.

Technofreak

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#1553031 15-May-2016 13:48

frankv:

The perfect place, BTW, would be in a small plane overhead Cheltenham at 1500ft. Which is where I was on 25 September 1995.

I had a much more perfect place than that. 10,000' overhead Chateau Tongariro.

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Perthman

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#1553139 15-May-2016 16:39

Love the way CNN beat up the story ....

(CNN)Hikers in New Zealand are being urged stay away from the crater lake of a volcano featured in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy because of increased activity.

GNS Science has raised the volcanic alert level of Mount Ruapehu to Level Two, which stands for "moderate to heightened volcanic unrest." Level Three indicates a small eruption. http://edition.cnn.com/2016/05/12/travel/new-zealand-mount-ruapehu-volcano-warning/index.html

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#1553147 15-May-2016 16:52

At least they don't have a video clip with a reporter casting "live" with a large screen tv playing the background and fill in the blanks caption not filled in

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