Ruapehu
Mt Ruapehu Eruption Resources
an occasional blog
Though we have reported on Mt Ruapehu's current eruption cycle since mid-1996 (in the form of a blog), we have now archived our reports offline, along with historical and geological information, and links to volcano resources sites), pending future activity.
Most recent activity:
1 July 2008 - It is now 9 months since Ruapehu's last eruption,but Crater Lake temperatures and gas on Mt Ruapehu continue to be higher than normal, and are now rferred to be GNS scietists as "signs of unrest".
13 May 2008 -
A number of reports in the past several months have provided evidence of increased volcanic activity inside Mt Ruapehu. GNS vulcanologist Dr Harry Keys has been summed these up succinctly: "Hang on, something unusual is happening". Since early May in particular there have been increased temperatures in the crater lake water, higher levels of gas output and irregular small tremors....
25 September 2007:
Tuesday night 8.15pm, a steam and ash eruption results in skifield evacuation and several injuries , according to various news reports (print and radio) ...
18 March 2007: Lahar finally happens sending a torrent of water, rocks and earth surging down the mountain in a standing wave up to 4m high before entering the Whangaehu River. The Lahar Management System worked as intended, and sent alerts to police, rail and road authorities and other agencies, triggering automatic barriers at the State Highway 49 bridge, and locking down the area. The NZ Herald carried spectator accounts and a photo gallery.
Mt Ruapehu is located in the central North island of
New Zealand. It is a year round tourist attraction, with
rock-climbing and hiking in summer, and skiiing and snowboarding
in winter. Mt Ruapehu is also an active volcano, and began
a new eruption cycle in mid-1996. This site presents archived
reports for the entire cycle, along with historical and
geological information, and links to other volcano resources
sites.
This page will be updated frequently if the mountain becomes active. Until then, our reports have been archived offline.
