Mount Tongariro erupts

At 12.40 p.m. on 13 November 1896, Te Maari, a crater at the northern end of the Tongariro range, erupted spectacularly. It continued to erupt sporadically for nearly a year.

An eruption in 1868 had formed the crater, which was named for a Māori woman of high rank who died around that time. This crater may have first erupted in November 1892, when it reportedly ejected water, sand, small stones and pumice. There was activity in other outlets in the Tongariro range, including Ngāuruhoe, Tongariro’s main active vent.

Te Maari’s first 1896 eruption reportedly turned the ‘small steam vent’ into a ‘large crater’ 100 m long and 150 m wide. It lasted for about 40 minutes, emitting steam and smoke to a great height. Fine weather allowed onlookers to see the plume from some distance away. A south-westerly wind carried a cloud of red ash towards Ātiamuri, north of Taupō. A party on the slopes of Tongariro made a hasty retreat. The residents of Otukou, a Māori settlement immediately beneath the crater, also evacuated the area. The crater erupted again at 3 p.m.

The crater continued to erupt at intervals until October 1897. A party that visited the site in January 1897 observed the damage:

The scene now, on the mountains, in the vicinity of the crater, is one of great desolation, and in fact the whole of the Tongariro range is bespattered with mud and stones. Large stones weighing four or five tons have been ejected in a southerly direction on to the top of the mountain, which is half a mile distant and 600 feet higher. Where the top of the mountain is flat these stones have become embedded in the earth with the force of their descent. The stones are mostly of a dull red and yellow and have the appearance of having been recently hot. No lava came from the crater, but a stream of mud and rocks has flowed down the mountain side, cutting a path through the bush, across Waimarino Road, and into Lake Roto-aira.

Other outlets in the range, including Ngāuruhoe, also showed activity during this period. Ngāuruhoe continued to experience frequent ash eruptions, and there were significant lava eruptions in 1870, 1948–49, 1954 and 1973–75. The Te Maari crater remained quiet until 6 August 2012, when eruptions of ash and rock disrupted road and air traffic to the east.

All these events pale in comparison to the 200AD Taupō eruption, the pyroclastic flows from which incinerated everything within an area of 20,000 square km. Both the Chinese and the Romans chronicled its effect on the atmosphere.

Image: Eruption at Mount Tongariro, Hawera & Normanby Star, 16 November 1896 (PapersPast)