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At around 1.30am, there was a violent earthquake and then a loud explosion as the Wahanga dome of the Tarawera area exploded. The cloud went up nearly 10km into the sky, and people watched in awe. Then at 2am, the Ruawahia peak and then the Tarawera peak erupted. The second explosion was so loud, it was heard in Christchurch, over 800km away. You could even see lights in the sky from the South Island. |
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Remember when you make sets and subsets in your maths class? Well, volcanic centres are grouped the same way. A single volcano may be a lone volcano or part of subset (called volcanic complex) or a group (called a volcanic field or volcanic centre).
For example, Mt Tarawera is actually only one of eleven domes that make up the Tarawera Complex, which is part of the Okataina Volcanic Centre.
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What had happened to the mountain was that water under the ground was heated up by the magma rising, and became steam. This then exploded. A 17km long fissure (big crack) was created down the length of the Tarawera complex. Even today, you can see what a huge fissure was formed. Imagine what was pouring out of here while the eruption was happening! |
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First of all molten rocks were flung out into the lake, and then a huge cloud of sulphuric dust, ash and mud began to fall from the huge black cloud formed by the eruption. The ground kept shaking, and deadly hot ash, scoria and mud fell over the area. The eruption lasted for four hours. |
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In that time, more than 2 billion cubic yards of ash was spread over an area of more than 6000 square miles. The pink and white terraces were blown to smithereens, and the bush around the area was flattened and covered with ash. |