White Island (Bay of Plenty)

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White Island / Whakaari
White Island (February 2013)

White Island (February 2013)

height 321  m
location Bay of Plenty , North Island , New Zealand
Coordinates 37 ° 31 ′ 0 ″  S , 177 ° 11 ′ 0 ″  E Coordinates: 37 ° 31 ′ 0 ″  S , 177 ° 11 ′ 0 ″  E
White Island (Bay of Plenty) (New Zealand)
White Island (Bay of Plenty)
Type Stratovolcano
Last eruption 09.12.2019, 14:11 local time UTC + 13 NZDT
Normal way Helicopter flight, boat tour
particularities New Zealand's only island volcano

White Island (official New Zealand name: Whakaari / White Island ) is New Zealand's only active volcanic island . The full Māori -Name for this island is Te Puia o Whakaari (short Whakaari ), which means "the dramatic volcano" or "make visible".

Many tourists and volcanologists visit the island every year . In many places, sulphurous steam escapes from hissing fumaroles . Therefore, the surface of the volcano is covered with excreted pale yellow sulfur . These deposits were commercially mined from a sulfur mine from the middle of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century. On White Island there is a gannet colony ( Morus serrator ) with around 5,300 breeding pairs (as of 2014–15). The island is therefore part of the Bay of Plenty Islands Important Bird Area .

geography

location

White Island Crater Lake (January 2005)

White Island is located around 48 km north of the coastal town of Whakatāne and 51 km north of the city of Opotiki in the Bay of Plenty . With an east-west extension of around 2.5 km, the volcano has a north-south extension of 2.2 km and rises with Mount Gisborne 321 m above sea level. However, this is just the top of a much larger submarine mountain rising about 1,600 m above the sea floor. 70% of the volcano is below sea level. This makes this volcanic structure the largest in New Zealand. The volcanic cone that forms White Island is over two million years old.

The volcano is located on the eastern edge of the Australian plate , where the Pacific plate slides under the Australian plate .

Projects

Volcanologists from the GeoNet project constantly monitor the activity of the volcano with the help of electronic aids such as surveillance cameras, magnetic field strength meters and seismological equipment for earthquake warnings. Up to a thousand earthquakes are recorded on this island every day, most of which are so weak that only seismographs can detect them.

history

White Island , Bay of Plenty , New Zealand (January 2005)

discovery

White Island was discovered by James Cook while sailing the Bay of Plenty on October 1, 1769 . He named the island that because it constantly appeared in a cloud of white steam. Even though he got close to the island, he hadn't noticed that it was a volcano.

Mining on White Island

White Island Crater (November 2011)
Mining facilities on White Island (January 2005)

At the beginning of the 20th century an attempt was made to mine sulfur on White Island . After twelve (or ten) miners died in a landslide in 1914, sulfur mining on the island was abandoned for the time being.

Sulfur mining resumed a few years later , but lessons had been learned from the 1914 disaster. The workers used huts on a plateau on the island. Every day they had to launch their boats using scaffolding and row them to the loading bay in Crater Bay . When the sea was stormy, they even climbed a narrow path around the rocks. Before the discovery of antibiotics , sulfur was used in medicine as an antibacterial agent, to sterilize wine corks, or to make match heads . The extracted sulfur was transported to the factory in small trolleys . However, there was too little sulfur on the volcano, and so the top soil layer was used as a component for agricultural fertilizer. Due to the low mineral content of the fertilizer, mining stopped in the 1930s. The ruins of the buildings that were burned by the sulphurous gases can still be visited today.

outbreaks

1975 to 2000

The volcano's longest known eruption phase occurred from December 1975 to September 2000, with the last major eruption of this phase occurring in July of the phase's fading year, forming a new crater 150 m in diameter. In 1981 and 1983 the island's landscape changed dramatically. Much of the Pōhutukawa forest was destroyed and a small lake was created in the main crater. The color of the crater lake varied from gray to green.

2012

Further eruptions of the volcano occurred on August 5, 2012 with a period of ash ejections. The crater lake subsequently heated up and, in connection with phreatic explosions , the lake disappeared in early 2013. In June, the lake formed again and further eruptions followed from August 20 to October 11, 2013.

2019

An outbreak on December 9, 2019 at around 2:11 p.m. local time resulted in 21 deaths and several injured, including those who had died from injuries and two people who were declared dead.

In the weeks before the eruption, New Zealand's geological institute had already determined increased volcanic activity and raised the alert. For example, on December 3, the Earthquake Commission warned in a press release: “Slight volcanic unrest continues to rule on White Island. Significant gas, steam and mud explosions can be observed at the opening behind the crater lake. Other monitoring parameters remain increased and the volcanic arm level remains at level 2 “. On December 9, the so-called alert level was upgraded to 3. According to the agency's report, there was a brief eruption that created an ash plume around 4,000 meters high.

According to the local police, 47 people were on the volcanic island at the time of the eruption, including 30 passengers from the cruise ship Ovation of the Seas , according to media reports . With the help of an observation camera ( GeoNet ) installed by volcanologists, it was possible to see that several people were at the crater when smoke began to obscure the view.

23 people were evacuated from the island by ships. Another 12 people were flown out in several helicopters. According to the police, there was little hope that the missing people would have survived the outbreak. New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said during a press conference that the victims were New Zealanders as well as tourists from Australia, the UK, China, Malaysia and the US. Reconnaissance flights have shown no survivors. Due to the risk of further eruptions, the rescue and recovery measures have been suspended for the time being.

On December 13 (local time), despite the risk of another volcanic eruption, eight soldiers recovered six bodies in a military helicopter from a naval ship. 22 people were in hospital at this time, some seriously injured and in mortal danger. More people died from their injuries in December.

On December 13th, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced a minute's silence for the victims on Monday, December 16. New Zealand police and navy divers continued their search for two missing persons in the waters around the volcanic island on December 14. As of December 15, 17 injured people were still being treated in 4 hospitals in New Zealand, 12 injured Australians were in hospitals in Sydney and Melbourne in their country. Entering the islands was banned on December 14th. It is believed that the two missing persons also perished and that their bodies washed into the sea. The chances of finding them were considered low and the search for them was stopped on December 24th. You have been pronounced dead.

tourism

The island is marketed for tourism, various companies have obtained licenses from the private owners of the island to conduct guided tours to the island. Visitors are brought to the island from Whakatāne by boat or from various locations by helicopter. It is a rule that visitors are only allowed to move around the island with sturdy shoes and a respirator and a protective helmet . Due to the location of the island, the tides and the prevailing wind direction influence whether a landing with a boat is possible. The boats are moored at the remains of the old landing stage of the mining company from the 1930s.

The number of visitors that various companies may bring to the island each year is regulated. Away from the paths, the temperature of the ground is up to 100 ° C. Without a trained guide it is very dangerous and therefore forbidden to enter the island.

literature

  • JW ColeE, T. Thordason, RM Burt : Magma Origin and Evolution of WhiteIsland (Whakaari) Volcano, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand . In: Journal of Petrology . Vol.41, No. 6 , 2000, pp. 867-895 (English).

Web links

Commons : Whakaari / White Island  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ BirdWatching, December 9, 2019
  2. ↑ a b c d e White Island . GeoNet , accessed on January 9, 2015 .
  3. ↑ a b Malcolm McKinnon : Bay of Plenty places - Inshore islands - Whakaari (White Island) . Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand , July 13, 2012, accessed January 9, 2015 .
  4. ↑ Coordinates and longitudes were determined using Goggle Earth Pro Version 7.3.2.5776 on January 5th, 2020
  5. ↑ ColeE, Thordason, Burt : Magma Origin and Evolution of WhiteIsland (Whakaari) Volcano, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand . 2000, p.  869 .
  6. ↑ White Island Volcanic Alert Levels . GeoNet , accessed on January 9, 2015 .
  7. ↑ Divers continue to search for missing persons at Vulkaninsel orf.at, December 14, 2019, accessed December 14, 2019.
  8. ↑ dead after volcanic eruption in New Zealand another victim. In: orf.at . January 29, 2020, accessed January 29, 2020.
  9. ↑ a b Search for missing persons interrupted In: tagesschau.de . December 10, 2019, accessed January 14, 2020.
  10. ↑ What we know about the volcanic eruption. In: ntv.de . December 9, 2019, accessed December 9, 2019.
  11. ↑ Dead and missing after a volcanic eruption. In: orf.at . December 9, 2019, accessed December 9, 2019.
  12. ↑ White Island: volcanic eruption surprises tourists in New Zealand - five dead . In: welt.de . December 9, 2019. Accessed on December 9, 2019: “Around 50 tourists were surprised by a volcanic eruption on a New Zealand island. There are at least five dead, Prime Minister Jacina Ardern speaks of a "serious incident". "
  13. ↑ White Island volcano: How are bodies being recovered? In: bbc.com . December 14, 2019, accessed January 9, 2020.
  14. ^ New Zealand eruption: No survivors on White Island after volcano suddenly erupts, say police. In: independent.co.uk . December 9, 2019, accessed January 14, 2020.
  15. ↑ Stephen D'Antal: New Zealand helicopter pilot describes horror of volcano rescue. In: theguardian.com . December 10, 2019, accessed December 9, 2019.
  16. ↑ No more hope for survivors. In: orf.at . December 9, 2019, accessed December 9, 2019.
  17. ↑ Dead in volcanic eruption - Germans probably injured. In: zdf.de . December 9, 2019, accessed December 9, 2019.
  18. ^ Volcanic eruption in New Zealand: bodies recovered. In: orf.at . December 13, 2019, accessed December 13, 2019.
  19. ↑ Another victim dies after a volcanic eruption in New Zealand. In: orf.at . December 14, 2019, accessed December 14, 2019.
  20. ^ Volcanic eruption in New Zealand: Another fatality. In: orf.at . December 23, 2019, accessed December 23, 2019.
  21. ↑ Divers continue to search for missing people at volcanic island. In: orf.at . December 14, 2019, accessed December 14, 2019.
  22. ^ Eleanor Ainge Roy: New Zealand volcano: last two bodies may never be found, say police. In: theguardian.com . December 18, 2019, accessed December 22, 2019.
  23. ↑ Alison Rourke: White Island volcano eruption: NZ police call off search for two remaining bodies. In: theguardian.com . December 24, 2019, accessed December 24, 2019.
  24. ↑ White Island eruption: last two missing victims declared dead. In: theguardian.com . January 23, 2020, accessed on January 23, 2020.
  25. ↑ White Island: New Zealand's last active volcanic island . In: Happytravels . March 18, 2018 ( happytravels.de [accessed August 20, 2018]).