Ruapehu Ready to Rumble!

Hi all,

Scientists reckon Mt Ruapehu in New Zealand's north Island could be ready to pop within weeks. They have been monitoring pressure under the crater Lake and things are building up!

Climbers and trampers have been told to avoid Mt Ruapehu's summit zone after scientists warned the mountain could erupt without warning.
Measurements taken on the volcano over the past few weeks indicated eruptions were more likely "within weeks, not months".

GNS Science believed the temperature a few hundred metres beneath the crater was about 800 degrees Celsius but the lake itself was only 20degC. This suggests the vent is partly blocked which may be leading to a pressure build-up beneath Crater Lake

Ruapehu erupted back in 2007 on a smaller scale but larger eruptions were seen in 1995 and 1996. Luckily Ruapehu is not near any hugely populated areas, but there is always a chance this could lead to other active Volcanoes in NZ erupting as well, such as Taupo, which is one beast of a Caldera.

So stay tuned on Ruapehu for now.

www.stuff.co.nz...
en.wikipedia.org...-96_eruptions
www.radionz.co.nz...
www.nzherald.co.nz...

www.geonet.org.nz...

There has been far too little volcanic activity recently. The cork was destined to pop sooner or later. How near is this one to the Katla volcano that has historically gone off within five years of Eyjafjalljokull erupting and said to be far worse than Eyjafjalljokull which shut down air travel for quite a while.

reply to post by happykat39


Nowhere near it. Ruapehu is in New Zealand, not remotely close to Iceland.

I haven't checked out the links yet, but this looks like from the OP's overview that it could be a significant eruption, or am I misinterpreting the information? Must go read the links!

reply to post by Nyiah


A very good site here that will answer your question -

www.mt-ruapehu.com...

Ruapehu is more likely to have National and not International implications, but saying that, if this were to have a knock on effect to Taupo....then thats a totally different story. Taupo has had some of the biggest eruptions on the Planet.

But it is Mount Tongariro (pronounced Tong A Ree Ro) that has gone first. Eruption today 1.25pm 21 Nov 2012 in the central north Island of New Zealand close to Mt Ruapehu.
Last eruption was 115 years ago.
Geonet report and photo of eruption so far.
Aaaand Mount Ruapehu (pronounced Roo A Pay Hu) could still go to. It is going to be a volcanic Xmas. Maybe the Mayans were right about "something" happening.



I guess we shall see.

reply to post by Lucas73


Yes, true, here's the thread about Tongaririo -

www.abovetopsecret.com...