Wikinews

Lahar at New Zealand's Mount Ruapehu

There are no reviewed versions of this page, so it may not have been checked for adherence to standards.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Related articles
Location of New Zealand
Collaborate!
New Zealand
New Zealand

A lahar at New Zealand's Mount Ruapehu is all but over, without causing anywhere the level of havoc for which authorities were prepared.

The event was first confirmed by a 3 News helicopter, and then the Department of Conservation.

The Department of Conservation had said that a "moderate lahar" was moving down the side of Mount Ruapehu.

The lahar travelled down the Whangaehu Valley, past the Tongariro catchment; and then continued on to the Tangiwai Bridge, the site of the 1953 Tangiwai disaster, which was itself caused by a lahar.

The crater lake is currently being reported by a free phone number as at a warning level of 3a. The crater lake is also being reported at a level between 5.7-6.7 metres up the Crater Lake tephra dam.

The lahar emergency plan was activated by Civil Defence. The district mayor of Ruapehu, Sue Morris, and conservation minister, Chris Carter, said that the authorities had been very quick to respond to the emergency. All three electronic surveillance technologies had their alarms activated. Mr Carter said, "The lahar travelled down the path as predicted, and the early warning response system that this government provided worked exactly as planned."

Highways near Mount Ruapehu were closed by the Ohakune police, including the Desert Road. The roads have now been re-opened.

A lahar has been expected for a long time now, and scientists say the lahar could have been caused by, among other things, the bad weather New Zealand has been having lately.

Since 1996 the water level in the crater lake at the top of Mount Ruapehu has been rising, which created a risk of a lahar last year.

edit

Sources

edit
 
Wikinews
 This article features first-hand journalism by Wikinews members. See the collaboration page for more details.
 
Wikinews
 This article features first-hand journalism by Wikinews members. See the collaboration page for more details.
edit
 

Share this:           


  This page has been automatically archived by a robot, and is no longer publicly editable.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that the listed sources may no longer be available online.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Lahar_at_New_Zealand%27s_Mount_Ruapehu"