Saterday, 07 October 2006

Scientists have confirmed a small eruption which may have sent a water plume about 200 metres into the air above Mt Ruapehu after a trip to the mountain top today. The eruption caused waves about six metres high in the volcanic lake but was a relatively small event

There was no sign of a lahar this is when volcanic material flows down the mountainside after an eruption. There had been no similar small scale events for a long time. In the 1980s and 1990s it happened reasonably regularly.

The eruption happened last Wednesday night in the middle of a bad storm. It would have been a geyser-type eruption. It would have domed up water in the lake and lifted it maybe a couple of hundred of metres high. Then it would have fallen back in the lake and generated waves out across the lake.

Ruapehu was very active and people had been advised not to go to the summit.