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White Island eruption New Zealand
Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2019 8:17 am
by nyker
This would have been pretty scary to be very close to as many tourists were went it went off
White Island Volcano: What’s Going To Happen Next?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/robinandre ... ppen-next/
Re: White Island eruption New Zealand
Posted: Sat Dec 14, 2019 9:35 pm
by Trotter
Its scary because it was considered safe, it was only being rated a 2 out of 5 on the volcano danger scale when it blew. I would have gone on it myself at that danger level...
I was on a few new zealand volcanos this year, and they were rated a 0 to 1 at the time. But even a 1 involves steam jets and boiling mud.
Re: White Island eruption New Zealand
Posted: Sun Dec 15, 2019 6:07 am
by timstich
It was never safe, considering the type of volcano it is (stratovolcano). A shield volcano is the only kind I would ever approach that closely.
People just rolled the dice and won for many years and made some tourist dollars off of it. No geologist can tell you exactly when volcanoes like this will erupt, and in this case that danger scale is about as useful as flipping a coin. But it's a similar mindset to avalanche danger. You can still cause a slide when it's just "considerable."
So in the future, if the volcano is that kind stay away.