Local tourism authorities market White Island, or 'Whakaari', as it is known in the Maori language, as "the world's most accessible active marine volcano". "I've been to White Island before, but I don't think I would have been comfortable being there today." "I have to say that I'm very surprised to hear there were visitors there, because scientists seem to have been well aware that White Island was entering a phase of heightened activity," said Drexel University volcanologist Loÿc Vanderkluysen. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said the government would investigate the incident. But tour companies were not required to keep their dozens of customers that day away from the volcano, operators and agencies say. Geological hazard tracker GeoNet raised its alert level for the island near the middle of a six-point scale in mid-November because of an increase in volcanic activity. Many of the visitors were on a day tour from a cruise trip in a nearby port. WHAKATANE, New Zealand: Tourists caught in the deadly eruption of White Island were there despite a recent increase in volcanic activity, although experts said precise predictions on eruptions were all but impossible.įive people were confirmed killed, eight are still missing and more than 30 were injured when the White Island volcano, one of the most active in New Zealand, erupted in a steam and gas explosion on Monday. (image via social media/GNS science/Reuters) The publication contributed the article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.An aeriel view shows smoke billowing from the crater of Whakaari, also known as White Island, volcano as it erupts in New Zealand on Monday. This article was originally published at The Conversation. New Zealand has been luckier than many other parts of the world, until now. We have seen several other fatal hydrothermal catastrophies unfold in other parts of the world, such as the 2014 eruption of Mount Ontake in Japan. Read more: Why Japan's deadly Ontake eruption could not be predicted The eruption is not caused by magma, but by steam, and this is much harder to track in our current monitoring systems. In this age of technology and instrumental monitoring, it seems irrational that there should be little or no warning for such eruptions.
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Unfortunately there are no simple rules that can be followed and each hydrothermal system is different. Our only hope for anticipating these events is to track potential vapour and liquid pressure in hydrothermal systems and to learn from their long-term behaviour when they are at a super-critical state. The warning periods, once an event gets underway, are likely in the order of seconds to minutes. Many systems are already "primed" for such events, but the triggers are poorly understood.
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We don't normally see these eruptions coming, no matter how much we would like to. Monitoring and warning for hydrothermal eruptions is a huge challenge. White Island is an acute location for such activity, but it is not the only location in New Zealand where this can happen. The eruptions are short-lived, but once one happens, there is a high chance for further, generally smaller ones as the system re-equilibrates. These can be deadly in terms of impact trauma, burns and respiratory injuries. The hazards expected from steam-driven eruptions are violent ejections of hot blocks and ash, and the formation of "hurricane-like" currents of wet ash and coarse particles that radiate from the explosion vent.