The eruption had been “really unexpected”.
“You can measure and monitor but sometimes mother nature will do her own thing.”
Yeah, like climate. From stuff.co.nz: (h/t to reader Dr K.A. Rodgers)
Mt Tongariro has erupted, with ash fall closing roads and prompting a potential threat warning for central North Island regions.
The eruption at 11.50pm last night threw rocks and spewed ash from the Te Mari craters, near Ketetahi hot springs, on the northern side of the mountain, GNS Science said.
Civil Defence said volcanic activity could pose a threat to Waikato, Hawke’s Bay, Gisborne, Manawatu-Whanganui, Bay of Plenty and Taranaki.
People living in those areas were advised to stay indoors with all the windows and doors closed and listen to the radio for updated emergency information and instructions.
The Desert Road section of State Highway 1, northeast of the mountain, and State Highway 46, to the north, had been closed due to the ash.
Ash had reportedly fallen as far east as Napier, police said.
The eruption had been “really unexpected”.
“You can measure and monitor but sometimes mother nature will do her own thing.”
Is Gaia jealous of us landing on Mars? /total sarc
It will be interesting to watch particulate distribution, …
Oh, so that’s why the last 15 years have cooled. Those retroactive volcanoes are crazy-tough to model.
Wait for msm to connect this event to CAGW induced tectonic plate movements.
-39.13289,175.643063
Lat-long coordinates for the mountain. Put into Google maps & turn on “terrain” option, if you want to get a sense of where the mtn is on the island & what it’s shape is
“People living in those areas were advised to stay indoors with all the windows and doors closed…”
Yep, that plan worked real good in Pompeii.
Associated with geothermal energy?
Volcanism is the unpredictable elephant in the room. A single event can undo a century of warming.
Stay safe, Kiwis …
The use of “unexpected” in that press release is a bit out of place IMHO. They raised the alert level about two weeks ago, after warning signs were detected, including increased volcanic gasses.
Perhaps they mean they are surprised that it had no precursor phreatic blasts to what appears to be the main eruption, but that’d be about the only surprise. It’s not as if the volcano just started erupting without any notice.
Were the earth quakes in New Zealand last year a precursor?
Arizona CJ says:
“The use of “unexpected” in that press release is a bit out of place IMHO”
Not really. The eruption is occurring from Tongariro which as been dormant since 1897. The numeous eruptions in the 20th century have come from Ruapehu the large volcano next door – where the ski fields are. It was under this latter volcano that earthquakes were experienced last week. Tongariro hasn’t uttered a peep earthquake-wise for decades.
Any WUWT readers who have ever been to New Zealand and walked the stunning Tongariro Crossing will have walked right past the small Te Mari craters where the present eruption is occurring.
So far the eruptions are fairly trivial but who knows what tomorrow might bring. The main problem is the ash which will disrupt air traffic today and already has een central North Island roads closed.
Next to the massive Taupo caldera.
Map
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Taupo.Volcanic.Zone.North.Island.NZ.JPG
Video report here.
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/mt-tongariro-eruption-could-start-again-any-time-video-5009986
Dr K.A. Rodgers says: “Not really. The eruption is occurring from Tongariro which as been dormant since 1897. The numeous eruptions in the 20th century have come from Ruapehu the large volcano next door – where the ski fields are. It was under this latter volcano that earthquakes were experienced last week. Tongariro hasn’t uttered a peep earthquake-wise for decades.”
***********************
Actually, it has; volcanic seismicity and increased gas emissions, enough to close the trails around it in recent weeks.
http://www.volcano.si.edu/reports/usgs/#tongarir
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/07/eruption-update-for-july-31-2012-continued-earthquakes-at-tongariro-and-quiet-in-the-philippines/
This was after North Island had its first snow for 40 years, and the eruption happens just as it warms up again in the Taupo region:
http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/cgi-bin/klibild?WMO=93245&ZEITRAUM=24&ZEIT=05082012&ART=MIN&LANG=en&1344281687&ZUGRIFF=NORMAL&MD5=
http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/cgi-bin/klibild?WMO=93245&ZEITRAUM=28&ZEIT=05082012&ART=MAX&LANG=en&1344280760&ZUGRIFF=NORMAL&MD5=
The eruption had been “really unexpected”.
Twisting ‘unexpected’ to ‘unprecedented & due to global warming’ in 3, 2, 1…
They did notice a small increase in seismic activity a month or so ago but it died down so the risk was lowered. Even with the new eruption, the risk hasn’t gone up.
http://www.geonet.org.nz/volcano/
Living 50km north of the volcano, there was no change this morning, though it is raining. Once that goes away, there might be more to see. So far it is nothing compared to the Ruapehu eruption of the mid 90s
Damn, why do these things always happen whilst I am asleep !!!
Woke to the news of Tongariro, a volcanic mountain I drive past quite reguiarly on either the Desert Road (highway 1) to the east or Highway 4 or 47 to the west. I have been up Tongariro and the sereneity is majastic (was), and the views simply stunning.
Amazingly enough, I got the news through WUWT and not the MSM – shows what I read first on a morning.
Andi Cockroft – from Wellington, NZ
Ulric Lyons says:
August 6, 2012 at 12:42 pm
This was after North Island had its first snow for 40 years, and the eruption happens just as it warms up again in the Taupo region:
http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/cgi-bin/klibild?WMO=93245&ZEITRAUM=24&ZEIT=05082012&ART=MIN&LANG=en&1344281687&ZUGRIFF=NORMAL&MD5=
http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/cgi-bin/klibild?WMO=93245&ZEITRAUM=28&ZEIT=05082012&ART=MAX&LANG=en&1344280760&ZUGRIFF=NORMAL&MD5=
===============
Well, State Highway 1 was closed when we visited in July 1995. Closed by snow.
Wellington to Auckland – round the houses. That’s only a decade and a half ago – ish.
So far – not a biggie. Stay safe NZ.
Unexpected…. yeah. Right.
“Eruption Update for July 31, 2012: Continued Earthquakes at Tongariro and Quiet in the Philippines”
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/07/eruption-update-for-july-31-2012-continued-earthquakes-at-tongariro-and-quiet-in-the-philippines/
Ulric Lyons, FYI it snows EVERY year on the mountainous rocky spine of both islands, sometimes to lower altitudes than other years. In the South Island,in the areas where mountain chains rise almost out of the sea, it snows down to sea level in most winters. The North of the North Island is classed as sub-tropical and snow there is rare but not unheard of.
Particulate distribution MAYBE from http://narac.llnl.gov/ National Atmospheric Release Advisory Capability at Lawrence Livermore National Lab.
It must be clearly the fault of Carbon dioxide and George W Bush. Just has to be.
/sarc, in case you didn’t know.
Ulric Lyons,
you may be referring to August last year when the snow storm in the middle of that month put snow to low levels and low, as in closer to the equator, latitudes in the North Island for the first time since 1939.
This year has been quite the opposite. The cold weather started early, but not unusually so, back in May, but it run out of puff by July with only one maountain snowfall for the North Island that month. After four record years for snowfall (1980 to the present) it wasn’t unexpected that this year would likely be down compared to 2008-09-10-11. Mind you our winter is only half over. NIWA are predicting a warm/mild spring with the chance of a polar blast!
Just to add to the comments in response to Ulric Lyons post about snow on the North Island, there’s a well known ski resort in the North Island near Lake Taupo where you get to ski on the slopes of an active volcano – Mt. Ruapehu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Ruapehu
http://www.mtruapehu.com/winter/whakapapa/
I had the pleasure of spending a day skiing there one day about 20 years ago.
The idea that there’s been no real snow on the North Island for 40 years is simply ridiculous.
UlricLyons, FYI it snows EVERY year in the North and South Islands of New Zealand, but usually only on what is known locally as ‘The High Country’, which both Islands have a lot of in the form of an alpine spine which runs for most of the length of the country.
The eruption has closed down the Tongariro Hydro scheme. Both Rangipo and Tokaanu power stations have stopped generating.
@auto
Apologies, the 40yr quote was from news articles from 2011.
My wife and I visited that area in 2007, on our trip through New Zealand. We were on the mount Ruapehu volcano side of the volcanic chain (via the Ohakune mountain road), where the result of the last eruption still was visible. Nice walks and nice views there!
It looks like LOR Country – Is it close to Hobbiton?
SURPRISE!?! Only to the global warmista chicken little types who forgot that we really aren’t in as much control as we’d like to think…
There had a series of small earthquake tremors detected on the mountain recently.
Mt Ruapehu is the volcano which is more active. It’s also a skifield and recently had 3 avalanches on the weekend. Mt Ruapehu also has a lahar.
Avalanches close Turoa ski field
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/avalanches-close-turoa-ski-field-5007505
Mt Ruapehu Lahar- Avalanche of Mud Cineflex Aerial Footage
Rumblings under Tongariro.
.
GeoNet said typically Tongariro experienced two such quakes – magnitude 2.5 or less – a year, but there had been more than 20 since July 13.
In a Volcanic Alert Bulletin issued this afternoon, it said the sequence started on July 13 and declined for a period, before restarting on July 18 and increasing in number yesterday.
‘‘These indicate unrest at Tongariro and give reason to change the Volcanic Alert Level to level 1 [from 0] and the aviation colour code to yellow [from green].’’
‘‘These earthquakes are small (magnitudes <2.5) and have only been well recorded by a few of the seismometers in our permanent network. The earthquakes cluster in a zone between Emerald Crater and the Te Mari craters at 2-7km depth.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/science/7317742/Rumblings-under-Tongariro
Two years ago the MSM would have made a vacuous connection between this type of event and Global Warming(tm) within hours. It’s been 12 hours and I can’t see any such reporting here. Yet.
{snicker} From a news video:
[News head] “…and with us now by phone is duty volanologist Michael Rosenburg, Good morning Michael I hear that this eruption caught everyone by surprise.”
[M. Rosenburg] “Well, it didn’t really, we’ve been recording small earthquakes under Tongariri for about the last three or four weeks…”
@ perlcat99,
Pompeii wasn’t just ash fallout, it was hit by a pyroclastic flow. Pyroclastic flows are clouds of super heated rock vapor and toxic gasses emited from some but not all volcanic eruptions. They are heavier than air, so stay at ground level and move at speeds exceeding half the speed of sound. If you are near a volcanic eruption that puts out a pyroclastic flow, by the time you know that the volcano erupted, you are either out of the way of the flow or you are toast. By that point, there is no such thing as getting out of the way.
The linked report gives no indication that this eruption involved a pyroclastic flow.
Considering that the entire LOTR trilogy was shot in Kiwi-land, it should come as no surprise.
I’m not sure why they are surprised – I can remember Mount Ngauruhoe erupting in the 50s and White Island has been continuously active as far as I know.
For LOR fans
The photo at the top is looking SW. If the camera went a bit more S, it would show Mt Doom which is actually a secondary crater, albeit higher.
If one looked SE, then there is the tussock lands at the top of the Desert Road where some of the battle scenes were filmed, using a lot of the NZ Army (who have a base nearby, as extras.
The eruption is not seen as significant as they have reopened the highways that are within 10km of the eruption site.
They tell us to expect ash where I am later today, although with the winds from the northwest I think some newsbody is overreaching on that. I just can’t see that happening with the prevailing winds.
It has been a small eruption so far and much of the ash blew on out to sea. Anyone know what the iron content of the ash is like? Might there be a bit of an uncontrolled CO_2 sequestration event happening out there in the southern ocean over the next few weeks.
Seismic activity had been increasing under that volcano for several weeks.
The reference to last year’s North Island snow fall being the first for 40 years was probably referring to snow falling in Auckland the largest city which is situated in the top section of the country. Snow in Auckland is very unusual.
There is always snow in winter way to the south of Auckland on the high country and at higher latitudes. There are extensive skifields on Mt Ruapehu the volcano situated within the Tongariro National Park, where last night’s eruption occurred.
I don’t think anyone here has commented that White Island a volcano situated in New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty, also on the ring of fire and considered part of the chain including Mounts Tongariro, Ruapehu and Ngaruhoe has had raised and rising alert levels for the past few weeks. Geonet’s site for updates.
Update: GNS, New Zealand’s monitoring agency says the eruption seems to be a steam driven event not magma.
Based on the FL200 VAAC report, it had a rate somewhere on the order of 131m³/s to 188 m³/s dense rock equivalent.
Not the most vigorous thing around.
Everything you need to know about this volcanic region.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/science/7428521/Taupos-explosive-volcano-zone
they should always expect the unexpected. Buckaroo Banzai does.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10825130
“We were unable to see the impact immediately around the craters so we still can’t confirm just which crater the eruptions occurred from,” he said.
“We’ve had a small-scale volcanic eruption. It appears to be driven in the hydrothermal rather than the magmatic process, there’s been an ash plume, there’s been ash-fall down wind.”
Photos
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/image.cfm?c_id=1&gal_objectid=10825130&gallery_id=127293#9448448
Well it’s a beautiful day in the north of the North Island and we’re still ahead of the Aussies in the gold medal count at the Olympics, despite our best hope managing only silver overnight.
That eruption thing in the middle of the island . . . they’re volcanoes, it’s what they do. Occasionally. Seldom enough so that when they do blow it makes the papers. Unlike little earthquakes, which happen all the time and never get reported . . . hence all those “surprised” lead-ins from uninformed journos, who’d know as much about seismic activity as Ulric Lyons knows about Down Under climate.
The Australian term for New Zealand is the very apt “the Shaky Isles” — illustrated back in the day by an Aussie mate of mine referring to his Kiwi girlfriend as “the sheila from the shakies”.
Apparently this latest eruption effort is caused by steam — in other words “all piss and wind” and nothing of much importance.
“Krazykiwi says:
August 6, 2012 at 3:20 pm
Two years ago the MSM would have made a vacuous connection between this type of event and Global Warming(tm) within hours. It’s been 12 hours and I can’t see any such reporting here. Yet”
Sarc://
If Mt Tongariro really does blow its top and they do try and blame it on AGW. We can always sacrifice Lucy Lawless and a few Greenpeace members by throwing them in the mountain to appease Gaia and the volcano Gods 🙂
Marian said:If Mt Tongariro really does blow its top and they do try and blame it on AGW. We can always sacrifice Lucy Lawless and a few Greenpeace members by throwing them in the mountain to appease Gaia and the volcano Gods 🙂
======================================================
Great idea … but what if they’re not accepted?
kim2ooo says:
August 6, 2012 at 2:32 pm
It looks like LOR Country – Is it close to Hobbiton?
=============================================
… about 100km (65 miles) to the south of Hobbiton or so
(very approximately). Nothing felt there.
Great Idea Marian, I’d say it was Lucy’s kind of film!
For those who wish to know more about the other main vent on Tongariro check out these links to Ngauruhoe (pronounced Now-Roo-Hoy). I remember seeing the January ’74 and February ’75 eruptions from 130km (about 80 miles) away. Very impressive from a safe distance.
http://www.geonet.org.nz/volcano/activity/ngauruhoe/about.html
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/historic-volcanic-activity/3/1/1
The North Island lately has been getting benign-active geology where no one gets hurt. Unfortunately events in Christchurch over the past few years have reminded us of what can happen when the scale of this activity reaches towards maximum.
Cheers
Coops
What’s the Tax burden for NZ now? Are there penalties for particulates with the carbon?
Thanks to an untimely northerly wind we don’t need to visit the volcanic plateau. The smell of rotten eggs (sulphur) pervades the air around here since dinner time. I walked into the supermarket tonight and let out what has quickly become the catch-cry, “Is’at you, or is that Tongariro?” We used to blame the dog!
No sign of ash, but we didn’t get any back in ’95 & ’96 when Ruapehu did bigger things then either.
Cheers,
Coops
Dormant does not mean extinct. I suspect that this volcano, considered dormant, was not subject to monitoring so an eruption would be unexpected. Let’s hope that this eruption is short lived.
In Notes From a Small Island, Bill Bryson describes how, because of the small-scale nature of the British Isles, the English press blow up normal weather events into full-scale disasters — one of the best examples being a light to moderate snowfall, where maybe a walker would have to take higher steps than normal to get through it, becoming a snowdrift that threatens to shut down whole cities.
Well, we had the Down Under volcanic version of that on tonight’s TV news, as an on-the-spot reporter held up discarded bottles that had a thin film of ash covering them then pointed to the roadside where footsteps could be discerned, just, all the time gabbling on about potential disasters.
To indulge in a bit of hyperbole myself, this is a beat-up of galactic proportions.
And while I’m here, anyone wanting to sound like they’ve stepped straight out of a tutorial on Maori pronunciation, given by a professor of Maori Studies at Auckland University, can take Ian Cooper’s advice above and pronounce Ngauruhoe as Now-Roo-Hoy. But be warned that you’d get the same reaction as using Paree for Paris. To be understood by the vast majority of people in this fair land, I’d suggest using Narra-ho-ee, emphasis on the Narra.
John Marshall says:
August 7, 2012 at 2:40 am
Really?
http://www.geonet.org.nz/volcano/activity/tongariro/
Graphite says:
August 7, 2012 at 6:01 am
In Notes From a Small Island, Bill Bryson describes how, because of the small-scale nature of the British Isles, the English press blow up normal weather events into full-scale disasters
The British Press blow everything up!
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/blow-up-sex-doll-tied-to-tree-1226346
Graphite says:
August the 7th @ 6:01 am
Normal weather happenings are blown up here to make news or try to convince the sheeple that CAGW is causing increasingly devastating weather.
Kelvin Vaughan says:
August the 7th @ 6:58 am
Does anyone read the Mirror? Presumably you did!
I meant to add that I drove along the Desert Road, on my own in a campervan, many years ago. I found it a decidedly spooky area but saw, heard and felt nothing of a seismic nature. On a visit to Christchurch though I did feel slight tremors while standing up on the gallery at Christchurch Cathedral. I later saw the seismograph, confirming what I’d felt. I feel so sad at what happened to Christchurch.
Now this is an eruption. Great photos
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/mount_st_helens_30_years_ago.html
Great links people . . thankyou!
Thanks ALL for the LOR information 🙂
Graphite,
I’m not sure where you live, but you need to get with the Te Reo programme or you’ll be left behind and considered a lazy dinosaur who doesn’t put the effort in. I’ve grown up with Maori people all of my life. I don’t speak Te Reo and never formally learnt the language at any stage, but atleast I try to pronounce the words as best as I can thanks to my friends some of whom are fluent speakers. It never ceases to amaze me how my forbears who came from the other side of the world insisted to the point of punishing indigenous people if they didn’t speak english properly, then promptly didn’t bother to reciprocate through either arrogance or laziness. “Narra-ho-ee,” sounds like somewhere you might find in the Aussie outback. “Now-ru hoy” (emphasis on the second syllable BTW) is something I can relate to.
Cheers
Coops
Well that certainly is weird. I have actually been skiing on Mt Ruapehu (circa 1956), while Mt Ngauruhoe next door was erupting, and spraying ash all over the Ruapehu ski slopes. Sure buggered up the soles of our skis; but I never imagined that Tongariro was also semi-active. I seem to recall that same year ,we actually went climbing on Mt Ngauruhoe while it was erupting; well hell we couldn’t ski, so might as well climb the varmint causing the ruckus.
That’s when I learned to look up during a volcanic eruption and not down; the bombs are coming down from up there, so you better watch to see when they come your way, so you can get out of the line of fire.
Well they didn’t have the Darwin awards in those days; and we were indestrucftible anyway.
“””””…..d while I’m here, anyone wanting to sound like they’ve stepped straight out of a tutorial on Maori pronunciation, given by a professor of Maori Studies at Auckland University, can take Ian Cooper’s advice above and pronounce Ngauruhoe as Now-Roo-Hoy. But be warned that you’d get the same reaction as using Paree for Paris. To be understood by the vast majority of people in this fair land, I’d suggest using Narra-ho-ee, emphasis on the Narra……”””””
Well if the Maori were still cannibals, they would certainly eat Ian Cooper first, but they would get to you soon enough; but yours certainly was a great improvement on his.
With few exceptions, every vowel in Polynesian languages is its own syllable.
The big stumbling block with Ngauruhoe, is that pesky Ng at the start of the word. A separate sound, it is duck soup when encountered mid word as in say “Tonga”, which is NOT Tong-GUH, well it is there in Tongariro as well. It is sounded exactly as in song, bong, throng.
There are NO gutteral sounds in Maori; no gees, no dees, no bees, the letters g, b, d do not exist in the Maori language the ng is a unified discrete sound, not two letters.
But for the Pakeha, it is bloody difficult to pronounce when it occurs at the start of the word, and Ngauruhoe is the final exam test. I suggest that Nah is about as close as we dunderheads can get to the real thing. But from there you do need to pronounce all of the syllable; not just three,
So I would say, Nah-oo-roo-ho-ay is a passing grade. There are some vowel pairs that are sounded together but a sfe approach is to sound most of them.
For Spanish speakers, my wife assures me, that Maori vowel sounds are absolutely identical to Spanish.
I grew up in Manurewa; which is Mah-noo-ray-wah, but being basically lazy, we called it Man-you-ree-wuh. Then of course Paraparaumu, was simp[ly Param ! Totally ugly.
If you can get the Ng at the start of a word absolutely correct, you are genius category.
Ngauruwahia, is another one to practice on.
By the way, there also is no (s) in the Maori alphabet, so plurals DO NOT have an s on the end, which is why I said the Maori would eat you, and the Maoris would probably not.
Graphite says:
August 6, 2012 at 5:51 pm
“..who’d know as much about seismic activity as Ulric Lyons knows about Down Under climate.”
I did actually make good forecasts back in 2008 for the return of rains to Australia. My main point above though was that the eruption occurred on a warm blast after a couple of months of frequently below freezing temperatures.
Hey GeoLurking,
Might show this to Erik Klemetti. I don’t know of many who claim solar activity is associated with big eruptions. Around here any association is generally a clustering may be during lack of solar activity. Maunder, Dalton, etc.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/10/30/previously-unknown-volcanic-eruption-helped-trigger-cold-decade/
@ George E. Smith
It is Ngaruawahia, not Ngaurawahia.
Cheers
Ian H
Volcanoes are just Gaia popping her zits. 😉
Coops
I live near Mangawhai . . . the last syllable of which I pronounce as “wai” (as do the long-term locals) rather than the PC jafa’s “fy”.
I was born and raised in Takapuna, which I pronounce, in common with 99% of the population, as Takka-poona. From there I could see Rangitoto.
Now, if you apply the same thinking that renders Ngauruhoe as Now-Roo-Hoy to Takapuna and Rangitoto, you’ll end up with Tar-kar-poo-nah and Rah-nee-tor-tor — both of which will see you become a figure of mirth.
And if you try Mah-noo-reh-wah in George’s Manurewa, the most likely reply will be “Are you taking the piss?” (Unless you’re out with your academic pals, of course, in which case you’ll be congratulated for your linguistic skill.)
By the way, if your library contains the slim volume Concise Dictionary of New Zealand Place Names you’ll see that it is “compiled by Gil Dymock”. I am that compiler. In the introductory pieces there’s a section “Guide to Maori Pronunciation”. I know a bit about this stuff, including the PC drill, but prefer to live, and talk, in the real world.
Volcanoes erupt so therefore climate change has nothing to do with humans. What an elegant proof! Just like so many that appear on this site.
Edward TP says:
August 8, 2012 at 5:28 am
Not sure what you are driving at here . . . but, the Earth currently has an axial tilt of about 23.4°,[5], ‘ so therefore season change has nothing to do with humans!’ ”What an elegant proof! Just like so many that appear on this site.”
What we do as humans is adapt to season changes, not assert that we may affect/effect them!
Meant to add that all dreaded . . .wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axial_tilt#Obliquity_of_the_ecliptic_.28Earth.27s_axial_tilt.29
“””””…..Ian H says:
August 7, 2012 at 8:47 pm
@ George E. Smith
It is Ngaruawahia, not Ngaurawahia.
Cheers
Ian ……”””””
OOoops ! Ian I have this manual dylsexia, where my fingers get ahead of themselves, so “the” tends to come out “teh”.
Thanks for catching that for me.
And as I am sure Graphite realizes, when you try to spell out phonetic things in a completely different langwidge, the hyphens are not to be taken as pauses, simply indicate syllabylization.
While I certainly sed Takka-poona when I was a kid, I don’t think it is any great imposition to use a more correct vowel sound, so Ta,ka,poo.nah would do it for me. Graphite did get my interest with Rangitoto, because it does bring out a couple of points. First off the ng would of course be incomplete without a vowel as in nga or ngi in this case, Rangi would be two syllables as Graphite tells us, but I think he demonstrates that nee is NOT an acceptible sound for the ngi, and makes the point that the correct sound is damn difficult for Anglos, but not if you think of song or long, which doesn’t turn the ng into any GEE sound. But I confess that I had not seen Ra-ngi as two syllables which it really is, and I’m sure my to-to as in toe-toe is not accurate.
The tor-tor, threw me for a while then I realized I HAD heard native Maori speakers, sound it that way. Is taw-taw different or are they the same ?
Hey any place you can see Rangitoto from is a good place, even if we can’t say it correctly.
I do prefer the Maori (language) to the Havaiian; much more musical to my ear.
A fairly well known fiction book about NZ early colonial days (very early) has a character by the name of Purdy, who ends up living with a Maori tribe, and the author goofed up and had the Maori turn his name into “Paradi”, which won’t fly because of the “d”. I actually considered writing to the author, and suggesting that in a second edition, he change his name to Parati, which is about what would more likely have happened.
There were some other research errors in the book; I seem to recall, that one had something to do with the native green pigeon, but I don’t remember exactly what, and then they had him logging Kauri trees, a good deal south of where Kauri ever grew. But it is a fun read; can’t remeber the name.
Wonderful news! Global warming advocates seek an explanation for static temperatures in this century, and now they have a logical explanation! Let’s buy carbon credits and amass great wealth.
Mr. Watts, while the amount of coverage you’ve given New Zealand recently has all been jolly nice and even a little flattering, I think you’re getting a little carried away in posting on this little eruption though, I live not a heck of a long way from Mt Tongariro and wasn’t aware of the eruption until I read about it on your site.
Now, if you’re looking for a New Zealand related story with far greater AWG implications, can I draw your attention to the eruption of a gas BBQ at Kiwi House in London about 3 hours ago, this event is especially significant a it was a large 8 burner BBQ, with the flames leaping a full 2 stories into the air. This dramatic event will, I have no doubt, and justifiably, receive far greater coverage in the NZ media over the next couple of days than the Tongariro eruption. Admittedly, being a gas BBQ the AGW implications are far less than they would have been had it been a coal BBQ, but still, given your recent obsession of my country, I urge you to give it the coverage on its AGW implications that it deserves.
Kind regards,
Andrew Worth.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/olympics/7443992/Fire-at-Londons-Kiwi-House
That was exciting!
Thought of this site when I accidently ran across this in a red herring hunt!
10 Most Active Volcanoes
So back to the subject; just what is Tongariro up to ? Is this a big event, or is the mountain just trying to raise its status compared to its more impressive neighbors ?
http://rankexploits.com/musings/2012/on-volcanoes-and-their-climate-response/