How New Zealand's White Island volcano eruption unfolded

Updated

When tourists entered White Island, they walked into a crater that could erupt at any time. Here is a 360-degree look at the volatile volcano.

This is Whakaari, or White Island, located 48 kilometres off the coast of New Zealand's North Island.

It is the summit of a large volcano around 16 km wide and 18 km long.

Most of the volcano is below water, and only a 2-kilometre-wide section of the cone is visible.

The Maori name for the island is "Te Puia o Whakaari", which means "The Dramatic Volcano". On Monday, it was transformed from tourist destination to disaster zone as the volcanic activity that draws thousands of tourists annually escalated with deadly consequences.

Professor Raymond Cas, a volcanologist at Victoria's Monash University, has visited White Island twice.

"When you actually get onto the island, you walk straight into this amphitheatre-like volcanic crater.

"The floor is littered with many gas-emitting vents and also several volcanic crater lakes which are emitting steam at near-boiling temperatures.

"You know straight away that you're right in the crater of a big, very active volcano, which has what we call very active geothermal systems consisting of superheated water, which at depth is also going to be under a lot of pressure and therefore prone to sporadic explosions."

The largest and longest series of eruptions ever recorded on White Island happened between 1976 and 1982. Molten rock rose up near the surface and ejected lava bombs and blocks of rock, and huge clouds of ash.

It's this crater that the tourists walk on and a photo captured by a mounted camera just before the explosion showed how vulnerable they were.

Directly below their feet is a mix of magma and superheated gas.

According to New Zealand's official earthquake monitoring body, GeoNet, explosive eruptions can happen with little or no warning. They eject cannonball-like hot rocks, ash clouds and surges of boiling gases and rock projectiles into the air.

"People were actually inside the crater, right adjacent to the vents of the volcano," Professor Cas said.

"And I think that's the issue — you're in this very confined space and when the event occurs there's actually nowhere to go."

This is what happened on Monday. For the 47 tourists on the island, the impact was immediate and devastating.

Michael Schade was almost one of those tourists. He took this photo aboard the boat he had just returned to from the island.

Just 30 minutes before, he had been on the ground looking over the edge of the crater.

But, now he was watching the disaster unfold in horror.

Footage captured from his mobile phone shows the ferocity of the damage caused by the eruption — a helicopter used to transport tourists is a twisted mess.

It also shows desperate efforts by tour guides to rescue and treat those left on the island.

New Zealand Police have confirmed the number of deaths has risen to eight, including six Australians.

Others are in various hospitals across New Zealand being treated for injuries on up to 90 per cent of their bodies.

New Zealanders Hayden Marshall-Inman and Tipene Maangi have also been confirmed among the dead.

On Thursday morning, Knox Grammar School in Sydney's north released a statement confirming the loss of two of its students — brothers Matthew Hollander (year 8) and Berend Hollander (year 10) — who died in hospital as a result of injuries sustained in the eruption.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison confirmed five injured Australians had been returned to Australia and were being treated in hospital, and another seven would be flown home in the next 24 hours.

GeoNet upgraded White Island's alert level from a level 1 to a level 2 on November 18, advising of increased volcanic unrest on the island.

Level 2 is the highest alert level before an eruption takes place and indicates "moderate to heightened volcanic unrest" with the "potential for eruption hazards".

Professor Cas said he believed GeoNet had set the right alert level and the tragic events that unfolded were a case of "unfortunate timing".

"From what I understand, based on the levels of seismicity and gas release, the alert warning at 2 seemed to be correct," Professor Cas said.

"That's normally a level at which people are alerted to be aware that there is an enhanced risk, but not necessarily indicating that there's going to be an imminent explosive volcanic eruption."

But, he says the nature of the volcano means it's a disaster waiting to happen.

"This is one of the most dangerous aspects of that volcano — it's extremely volatile.

"The problem is, with a crater system like that you're basically enclosed within the crater, it's got noxious gases escaping from the gas vents, it's got this superheated crater lake which has periodically overspilled, releasing boiling-temperature water, it's undergone explosive eruptions, the crater walls have experienced landslides and the rims of these crater lakes have also periodically collapsed."

In 1914, a "hot avalanche" destroyed a sulphur-mining village and killed 10 workers on the crater floor.

Early this morning, elite military teams airlifted six of the eight bodies off the island in a daring operation to bring the dead home to their loved ones.

They faced a deadly environment, with severe dust and dangerous chemicals such as sulphur dioxide, which caused inhalation burns to many of the victims.

While these conditions make a grim task all the more difficult, it is the risk of eruption that made the recovery operation fraught.

A GeoNet chart shows increased volcanic activity since the eruption, meaning the recovery team faced the same risks that caused the disaster in the first place.

Credits

Tim Leslie: Producer

Joshua Byrd: Developer

Catherine Hanrahan: Producer





Topics: volcanic-eruption, disasters-and-accidents, new-zealand, australia

First posted