Mike Fackney gave us a very interesting talk about his trip to Whakaari/White Island in 2013 to view the crater-lake and its general surroundings. Mike provided some excellent photography from his expedition.
The island is 48 km offshore from the east coast of New Zealand in the Bay of Plenty, has an area of 325 hectares, and is privately owned. It is New Zealand’s most active cone shaped volcano, with 30% of its mass being above sea level. It has been building up continuous volcanic activity over the past 150,000 years.
Up to 2019, tourists were able to visit the island and walk to and from the jetty up to the crater hole.
The volcano was continuously erupting from December 1975 to September 2000, with more recent eruptions in 2012 and 2016. A 1 to 5 alert level was in place, with 2 being the most common level throughout its monitoring history.
On 9 December 2019, the volcano erupted while 47 people were on the island, killing 22 and severely injuring 27. Two bodies have never been found.
Mining for sulphur had been carried out from 1885 until 1914 when the crater collapsed and took the lives of 10 miners. Some of the old plant and machinery had been left near the jetty area. The island consists of barren rock formations. Interestingly the entire island is just the peak of a much larger submarine volcano!
Whakaari/White Island is no longer open to the public. Criminal and company legal proceedings concerning the 2019 eruption fall-out have been concluded. However, a coronial enquiry into the 2019 eruption is still in progress.
