Mt Ruapehu is the largest mountain on the North Island of New Zealand. As well as being a popular ski resort, Ruapehu is an active andesitic stratovolcano. Formed approximately 200,000 years ago, activity is currently confined to the Crater Lake vent; this deep depression fills with water from snow melt between eruptive episodes. Similarly to the recent eruption of Mount Ontake in Japan, Ruapehu h ...[Read More]
Phreatic eruptions – the silent assasins
The recent eruption of Mt Ontake, Japan tragically killed at least 50 hikers who were on the volcano at the time. Within hours of the eruption taking place, social media was flooded with first-hand video footage illustrating just how close many survivors came to perishing in an onrushing pyroclastic flow. Despite having a sophisticated seismic and geodetic monitoring system, many news reports stat ...[Read More]