Pete Are you ok?

Pete

I saw this: Mount Tongariro volcano erupts in New Zealand
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...w-Zealand.html

I hope your and your are well and safe.

Tom

tleaders...gmail.com wrote:
> Pete
>
> I saw this: Mount Tongariro volcano erupts in New Zealand
> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...w-Zealand.html
>
> I hope your and your are well and safe.
>
> Tom

Thanks Tom,

yes, everybody (the entire population of NZ) is fine. (Well, at least
no-one is suffering from the Tongariro eruption as far as I know...)

Fortunately for us, the active volcanoes on our island are fairly far away
from population centres.... (Or maybe people decided there was enough space
to settle without having to live on a volcano... I dunno... :-))

The North Island is vocanically active (as well as both major islands being
seismically active) and there is a large volcanic plateau from the ends of
the Bay of Plenty (I live in the Western end) inland towards Lake Taupo.
(Taupo is the source of NZ's longest river and was formed in a single
volcanic eruption about 27,000 years ago. There have been several other
major eruptions there since. Today, it is a prized trout fishing
venue.)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Ta..._and_volcanism

It is fairly unusual for Tongariro to act up, although with volcanoes
nothing is ever certain. There are three active volcanoes in the centre of
the North island (near Taupo) :

1. Ruapehu (ski fields with a crater lake you can swim in. Ski down to the
lake, strip off and swim in warm to hot water amidst the ice and snow...
fairly unique, I believe).
http://www.3news.co.nz/Ruapehus-Crat...1/Default.aspx

2. Ngauruhoe, which is much more of a volcanic cone and is active or
semi-active most of the time. Quite often the ground on this mountain is
snow-free even in the Winter, because it is too warm for snow to remain.
https://www.google.co.nz/#hl=en&gs_n...w=1280&bih=571

3. Tongariro, which is the one that has just erupted.

All three of these mountains sit in a very beautiful National Park.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongariro_National_Park

To put things in perspective a little, from my house to Mt. Tongariro is 165
KM (102 Miles). The nearest (constantly) active volcano to my place is in
the Eastern end of the Bay of Plenty (White Island), around 90KM (55 Miles)
away.

A serious event like the creation of Lake Taupo would be cause for concern,
but the rest of the eruptions are really just firework shows and of no
concern to anyone. (Tourists fly out to White Island specifically to see it
erupting and the same is true for the volcanoes in the Tongariro National
Park). There is no realistic danger to most people. (People who live and
work in the Park may feel differently...). The earthquakes are quite another
matter, though, and, although we accept them as part of the way of life here
(and have one you can actually feel about once every 7 years or so), there
is growing seismic and volcanic activity at the moment.

Because larger eruptions are spectatcular, ones like the latest at Tongariro
make the news.

There are some really good legends about the mountains and you can see some
of them here (there's a particularly good video as well, spoken by a Maori,
which will give you an inkling of how the names should be pronounced):

http://www.greatlaketaupo.com/new-zealand/legends/

Thanks for your concern, Tom. (Hopefully, it will remain unwarranted... :-))

Pete.
--
"I used to write COBOL...now I can do anything."