Lady Knox Geyser

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Man-made fountain of the Lady Knox Geyser

The Lady Knox Geyser is an artificially created geyser in the Waikato region on the North Island of New Zealand .

Origin of name

Originally presented to the public as Northland Geyser in an article dated December 6, 1906 in the New Zealand Herald , the geyser was later named Waiotapu Geyser in tourist publications . The geyser was given its current name in honor of Constanze Knox , daughter of Uchter Knox, 5th Earl of Ranfurly , a former governor of New Zealand .

geography

The Lady Knox Geyser is located 26 km south-southeast of Rotorua , close to the visitor center of Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland . He is part of the 18 km 2 large geothermal area Wai-O-Tapu .

description

The Lady Knox Geyser is not active itself. He only rules when soap is poured into his mouth. Fountains between 10 and 20 meters are documented and can last for several hours. Since the geyser was artificially created, no data on its original state is available. The hot spring, the basis of the geyser, is said to contain chloride and originally let small amounts of water escape.

history

In 1906, prisoners at a penal camp run by the then Department of Justice in the Wai-O-Tapu area found that the hot spring in which they washed their clothes and which is now the base for the geyser, reacts to soapy water and expels hot water. Scanlon , head of the prison camp, then reduced the diameter of the opening of the spring by means of a steel pipe, with which he also increased the water outlet height and surrounded the pipe with pumice stone to create a cone. Fountains of up to 50  feet (around 17 m) and eruptions that could last several hours were possible. Published in December 1906 by the New Zealand Herald as Northland Geyser , an increasing number of tourists came to the site and made the man-made geyser an attraction. In a publication in the Evening Post of December 24, 1938 on the occasion of the Duke of Gloucester's visit , a fountain height of 60  feet was reported, which corresponds to a height of around 20 m.

Over the years, mineral deposits have settled over the pumice stone and shaped the edge of the exit hole so that the cone looks like a naturally created cone.

literature

  • EF Lloyd : The hot springs and hydrothermal eruptions of Waiotapu . In: New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics . Volume 1 , No. 1 , 1959, p. 141–176 , doi : 10.1080 / 00288306.1959.10431319 (English, online [PDF; 4.3 MB ; accessed on March 25, 2017]).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Lloyd : The hot springs and hydrothermal eruptions of Waiotapu . 1959, p.  152 .
  2. ^ Peter Janssen : Wai-O-Tapu . In: 1001 Best Things to See and Do in New Zealand . Hodder Moa , 2006, ISBN 978-1-86971-067-5 (English).
  3. ^ Waiotapu - History . Waikato Regional Council , accessed March 25, 2017 .
  4. ^ Thermal Wonders - Visit to Wairakei - Fun at the Blowhole . In: The Evening Post . Volume 1 , No.  1 , December 24, 1938, p. 8 , col. 2 (English).
  5. ↑ Lloyd : The hot springs and hydrothermal eruptions of Waiotapu . 1959, p.  152-153 .

Coordinates: 38 ° 21 ′ 2.8 ″  S , 176 ° 22 ′ 37.1 ″  E