A violent explosion just took place on New Zealand's White Island volcano, causing injuries. Here's the geological background to the volcano, and the possible eruption styles that may have taken place.
– as an impulsive, short-lived event that affected the crater floor. The activity, they wrote, appears to have diminished since the eruption.
Being so close to the sea - in fact, the open vent is below sea level, just enclosed by the volcano’s rim - external water may have infiltrated White Island’s shallow magma supply. When mixed in an appropriate manner and with the right magma-to-water ratio, you can get an explosive vaporization of the water. That subsequently sets off a rapid chain reaction of violent depressurization events – in other words, an explosion.
Several of these discrete blasts have happened at White Island many times in the past, and they are mostly very short-lived. White Island is ebullient and forceful, and its eruptions can sometimes produce topographic changes. In the 19centuries, new vents have opened up, putting fresh holes in the crater floor. Some of the crater wall catastrophically failed and collapsed in 1914, creating a debris avalanche that smothered buildings and workers at a sulphur mine.Māori legends have described the eruptive fury of the volcano for some time now.
situated 48 km from the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand, in the Bay of Plenty. The island is roughly circular, about 2 km in diameter, and rises to a height of 321 m above sea level. Sulphur mining was attempted but was abandoned in 1914 after ten workers were killed. It is New Zealand's only active marine volcano and perhaps the most accessible on earth, attracting scientists and In any event, this latest event certainly sounds like a 2 or 3 on the VEI.
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