Everything about Whakaari White Island totally explained
» Whakaari/White Island is one of two New Zealand islands known as White Island. For other islands of this name, see White Island
Whakaari/White Island is an active
andesite stratovolcano, situated 48
km from the east coast of the
North Island of
New Zealand, in the
Bay of Plenty. The nearest mainland towns are
Whakatane and
Tauranga.
The island is the largest of the four islands in the Olive island chain. It is roughly circular, about two km in diameter, and rises to a height of 321
m above sea level. However this is only the peak of a much larger submarine mountain, which rises up to 1600 m above the nearby seafloor.
Sulphur mining was attempted but was abandoned in 1914 after a
lahar killed all 10 workers. The main activities on the island now are guided tours and scientific research.
Volcanology
Whakaari's eruptions have produced both lava flows and explosive eruptions of ash. It is New Zealand's only active marine volcano and perhaps the most accessible on earth, attracting scientists and volcanologists worldwide as well as many tourists. It marks the northern end of the
Taupo Volcanic Zone.
Volcanologists from the
GeoNet Project
continually monitor the volcano’s activity via surveillance cameras. Survey pegs,
magnetometers and
seismograph equipment for early earthquake warnings via radio have also been installed on the crater walls. The island is usually on an alert level rating of 1 or 2 on a scale of 1–5. At most times the volcanic activity is limited to steaming
fumaroles and boiling mud. In March 2000, three small vents appeared in the main crater and began belching ash which covered the island in fine grey powder. An eruption on
July 27,
2000 blanketed the island with mud and
scoria and a new crater appeared. Major eruptions in 1981–83 altered much of the island’s landscape and decimated the extensive
pōhutukawa forest. The large crater created at that time now contains a
lake, whose level varies substantially.
History
The full
Māori name for the island is 'Te Puia o Whakaari', meaning 'The Dramatic Volcano.' It was named 'White Island' by
Captain Cook on
October 1,
1769 because it always appeared to be in a cloud of white steam. Although Cook went close to the island he failed to notice that it was a volcano. Its official name is Whakaari/White Island although it's most well-known as White Island.
Attempts were made in the mid 1880s, 1898-1901 and 1913-1914 to mine
sulphur from Whakaari but the last of these came to a halt in September 1914, when part of the western crater rim collapsed, creating a
lahar which killed all 10 workers. They disappeared without trace, and only the camp cat (named Peter the Great) survived. Some years later in 1923 mining was again attempted, but learning from the 1914 disaster, the miners built their huts on a flat part of the island near a
gannet colony. Each day they'd lower their boat into the sea from a gantry, and row around to the mining factory wharf in Crater Bay. If the sea was rough they'd to clamber around the rocks on a very narrow track on the crater’s edge. Before the days of
antibiotics, sulphur was used in medicines as an
antibacterial agent, in the making of match heads, and for sterilising wine corks. The miner’s diggings were handled in small rail trucks to the crushing and bagging process in the factory built on the island. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough sulphur at Whakaari and so the ground up rock was used as a component of agricultural fertiliser. Eventually the mining ended in the 1930s because of the poor mineral content in the fertiliser. The remains of the buildings can still be seen, much corroded by the sulphuric gasses.
Access
Whakaari is privately owned and was declared a private scenic reserve in 1953 and is subject to the provision of the Reserves Act 1977. Visitors can't land without permission or remove or disturb any wildlife and must leave only their footprints. However, it's easily accessible by
authorised tourist operators.
Weather permitting, a luxury motor launch leaves Whakatane daily for a six-hour day trip. Helicopter trips are also available from Rotorua and Whakatane.
The waters surrounding White Island are well known for their fishing.
Yellowtail kingfish abound all year round, and there's deep water fishing for
hapuka and bluenose (type of
warehou) in the winter and blue, black and striped
marlin and
yellowfin tuna in the summer. A small charter fleet offering day trips and overnight or longer trips operates from the nearby port at Whakatane.
Trivia
In May 2004 a
Dino figurine was glued in front of the Geonet volcano camera on the island. Geonet decided not to have it removed, expecting the plastic toy not to survive long in the corrosive environment. As of January 2008, however, the figurine was still present and didn't appear visibly degraded.
Image:Crater lake, White Island, 2004.jpg|The crater lake in 2004
Image:White Island Lake n.jpg|The crater lake in 2005
Image:White Island fumarole.ogg|Short video of sulphurous fumarole
Further Information
Get more info on 'Whakaari White Island'.
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