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.”
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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!