The damage has been done in the last century-and-a-half. Goats were probably released on the island by whalers in the early s. These three mammals are a lethal combination on islands with large bird populations. Rats eat the eggs and chicks, cats prey on the adults, and goats thin out the vegetation, making ground-feeding species more visible to predators. Here is life as it should be on Raoul—or in New Zealand, for that matter. A shallow rock pool brims with sprat-sized fish. Nearby, a pair of red-headed lime green Kermadec parakeets notice my presence, hop a few centimetres further away, then cheekily continue their foraging on a bed of ice plant.
In between, an egg, a fluffy chick or a parent Kermadec petrel sits on every available space. They patter about on pink webbed feet, lift off briefly into the wind, then settle again. From the ridge, I look out across the blue expanse of the Pacific to the north. Flecks of golden afternoon light shaft down through the pohutukawa canopy, scattering forest patterns at my feet.
These trees are around 50 years old. But not far from here, older trees, planted a century ago, still bear juicy oranges. I shake down some fruit, partially peel them and sink my teeth into the sweet centres. Back to a time when Polynesian seafarers were ranging widely over the Pacific. It was here that the badly leaking Aotea canoe is said to have been beached for repairs.
It is possible, but by no means certain, that Rangitahua and Raoul are one and the same. That Polynesians did live on Raoul, however, is beyond doubt. Candlenut trees, edible ti a type of cabbage tree and kiore are evidence of their presence, as were several adzes found on the northern side of the island.
It was not until June that the first Europeans set eyes on Raoul Island. In , Capt. The island was not marked on any of his British charts, so he named it after the day of his visit: Sunday.
It was by this name that Raoul became commonly known until the early 20th century. Southern right whales were also taken from an area to the east of the Kermadecs.
Sunday Island, being a source of fresh water, firewood and meat from the goats and pigs which the early whalers introduced , soon became a well known anchorage. By the late s, the great sperm whales had been slaughtered to near extinction. Several were drowned where they were thrown and eighty died after landing.
Some not having the strength to crawl beyond the reach of the tide were drowned. The dead bodies were buried on the beach, in sand, and when the tide rose and surf set in all the bodies were disinterred and strewn all over the beach and allowed to remain as the tide left them.
Within two years, these pumice cones had been worn away by the sea, leaving no trace. The dark lines of Pacific swells pulsed into the bay, pounded on to the gravel beach then seethed back into the turbid depths.
The story of Bell, wanderer and adventurer, begins in , when he left his Yorkshire home at the age of 16 for the goldfields of New Zealand and Australia.
Bell eventually found his way to Hawkes Bay, where he operated a flax mill and married Frederica, the daughter of a Lancashire farming family, around First to the Bay of Plenty, then to Apia, Samoa, where he bought a hotel in It was here that Bell met Chris Johnson, a one-time settler on Raoul, who told him of an uninhabited paradise where vegetables sprang up like magic. Neither Bell nor Johnson, as they talked and drank amid the colonial clamour of the Apia hotel that night, knew that these very words would haunt Thomas Bell until his dying day.
Sails were hoisted into the warm trade winds for the lazy south-west run to Raoul and Auckland. As the white sails of the Norval became specks on the horizon, Frederica kindled a fire to make scones in her camp oven, and Bell cut open a tin of flour. Cursing, he opened another tin, then another. All 12 tins were the same. The tins of cabin bread were found to be a mass of weevils and crumbs. McKenzie had swindled them. The six months of supplies he had sold Bell were completely inedible.
The few oranges growing in the bay were soon eaten, so the family gathered whatever food they could. There were no goats in Denham Bay, so Bell, with his two older girls, made frequent hunting trips to the interior of the island. Each time, the trio, often weak from hunger, had to scramble on hands and knees for two hours to reach the top of the metre-high Denham Bay cliffs, which, even today, with ropes, are a formidable climb.
Three months passed. Four months turned into six months. Their meagre rations of food were almost gone, the rain-drenched cliffs were too dangerous to climb and the sea too rough for collecting limpets or fishing.
He was right. The Norval never returned to Raoul Island. Finally, after eight miserable months, the whaler Canton sailed past the island. Alerted by the sight of smoke from a signal fire, the ship sailed into the bay.
The entire family was jubilant. They were rescued! So the Bells remained. In the next weeks, in countless loads, every possession was lugged, step by painful step, up the cliffs and over the hill to the other side. Bell even dug up the grass he had planted and transplanted it, tuft by tuft, to the terraces. Tales of a family living on Sunday Island quickly spread among the last of he whalers.
Several began to make regular provisioning stops at the Low Flat settlement, where Bell sold them bananas, pineapples, peanuts, tree tomatoes, passionfruit and a wide range of vegetables. Obsessed by his vision, Bell and his children toiled in the gardens, despite droughts, earthquakes and fierce storms. Time and time again he restored greenness to his land. Bell was beside himself with rage. The land his family had lived on for nine years had been whisked from under his feet. When the Stella returned to New Zealand.
Eighteen months later, subdivisions on Raoul were put up for lease, and attracted considerable interest. The effect was charming as the mist floated up and down. But the enchantment was short-lived. Once ashore, the settlers found that almost all of the land that they had intended to farm was in rugged hill country.
But it was to be five long months before the next ship arrived. Unable to grow much of their own food, many of the settlers had to rely on the kindness of the Bells, who provided sheep, flour and other necessities.
When the last families departed two years later, Bess Bell and her young brother Thomas also left the island, hoping to find a better life in New Zealand. In , Bell was granted a hectare freehold title to the northern terraces of Raoul. Heavy seas prevented landing on Curtis Island, the other island in the Kermadecs showing thermal activity.
Table 1. Adams, R. Weissberg, B. Information Contacts: I. Nairn , P. Otway , B. Scott , and C. The strongest earthquake swarm since the eruption began at on 9 March.
The larger events shook trees and caused small rockfalls. There were no apparent changes to the lakes in the caldera or to Denham Bay.
On the afternoon of 9 March an overflight revealed no indications of volcanic activity. The strongest, M 4. Because the swarm may have been precursory to an eruption, the meteorological station staff of 4 men and 1 dog was evacuated by ship to a location 10 km from the island.
They returned the following day and saw that the number of earthquakes had diminished considerably. Earthquakes continued to decline in number and intensity, and on 13 March, the ship departed the island, leaving the staff behind. Analysis of the seismicity indicated the swarm was of tectonic rather than volcanic origin. No volcanic earthquakes or tremor, such as recorded in the 11 days prior to the eruption, were detected in this swarm, and the recent earthquakes were fewer and smaller than in There was no evidence of the increased heat flow to the surface that preceded the eruption.
Though the level of one of the caldera lakes rose 38 cm on March, this was minor compared to the rise of cm in 11 days prior to the eruption. Nairn and B. Eruption on 17 March preceded by 5 days of earthquakes; 1 fatality. An eruption took place on 17 March at Raoul Island, killing one person. More than earthquakes were recorded in the first 24 hours, with many of the larger events felt on the island. Earthquakes continued throughout the week, but the numbers gradually decreased. An eruption from the Green Lake crater, within the Raoul caldera figure 2 , began at on 17 March.
Other than the precursory seismicity, no water-level or temperature changes were observed, even only 24 hours before the eruption. Based on data from the seismograph on the island, the eruption appears to have continued for up to 30 minutes, although the most intense part of the eruption lasted for only 5 to 10 minutes. Following the eruption, the rate of earthquake activity doubled, but by 23 March the number of earthquakes was reduced to per day.
Many of the steep crater margins had post-eruption collapses marked by fresh landslides. The New Zealand Department of Conservation evacuated five staff members from the island, but one worker, taking water-temperature measurements at Green Lake at the time of the eruption, was killed.
Devastation left by the eruption thwarted efforts to find the missing worker figure 3. A news story reported that the missing man left around on 17 March to walk to Green Lake. An hour later the volcano erupted. Volcano monitoring of the Raoul crater lakes started after the eruption, as these lakes responded measurably before that event, consistent with a long-lived hydrothermal system. There are low-temperature boiling-point fumaroles in the vicinity of Green Lake and minor seepages of hydrothermal brine from the system boiling hot springs along Oneraki Beach, outside of the caldera.
The gases have strong hydrothermal signatures as opposed to proximal magmatic. As such, they do not suggest single-phase vapor transport directly from a magmatic source to the surface, but rather are indicative of the presence of boiling hydrothermal brine at depth. Historical observations of volcanic eruptions from this caldera and Raoul caldera point to the likely existence of a sizable active system residing there.
Still and video footage taken of the post-eruptive scene on 17 March showed many new craters and reactivation of craters. Fumarolic activity appeared near the mouth of Crater Gully and the stream that drains from Crater V. The area NW of Bubbling Bay, where there had been a fumarole, contained a crater about m across. In the main body of Green Lake there were two areas of strong upwelling.
One occurred near the end of the peninsula S of Crater XII a promontory that had been explosively removed. Jagged rocks were visible in the lake where it had been m deep. There was also a new feature about m N of Green Lake's Crater XII figure 2B ; the new feature included a moat near the edge of the crater floor, which contained a vigorously active vent. Green Lake's surface did not appear elevated at the time of the post-eruption 17 March observations.
Sulfur dioxide SO 2 was detected by satellite about 5 hours after the 17 March eruption figure 4. Subsequent observations did not detect further SO 2 discharge. Visible steam discharge from the vents had declined significantly owing to a m rise in Green Lake's water level and the consequent drowning of most of the active vents.
The lake level did not appear to have reached overflow level. Landsliding and collapse also blocked Crater I. Vigorous upwelling and gas discharge was still obvious through Green Lake, which appeared very warm. There was no evidence of further eruptions since 17 March, nor was there any evidence that activity had occurred from the craters adjacent to Crater Gully i.
However, many new craters formed at the mouth of Crater Gully where hot bare ground had been present. In the craters aligned along three parallel fractures that tended NW. Heightened activity was not confined to the lake. In Denham Bay GNS scientists observed a weak plume of discolored water approximately coincident with the vent area.
There was evidence of hydrothermal seepage along most of the beach milky discoloration indicating mixing of hydrothermal brine and seawater. If these are confirmed as hydrothermal seepages, they represent a significant rise in the surface of the hydrothermal fluids in the system, consistent with that observed in the caldera. On 23 March , the GNS reported that scientists who flew over noted that the hydrothermal system under the island showed signs of over-pressuring.
GNS volcanologist Bruce Christenson stated, "From our aerial observations, it is clear that the heat, gas, and water that are discharging into Green Lake are making this part of the volcano's hydrothermal system unstable. Many of these were drowned as a result of lake-level rise. According to Christenson, "one explanation for the increased hydrothermal activity is that it is being driven by the intrusion of magma at depth. Steve Sherburn of GNS reported on 24 March on the GeoNet website the New Zealand GeoNet Project provides real-time monitoring and data collection for rapid response and research into earthquake, volcano, landslide, and tsunami hazards that over the last few days the level of earthquake activity at or close to Raoul Island had continued to decline to a current level of only earthquakes per day, most of which were probably too small to be felt on the island.
There is no unequivocal seismic evidence for magma movement such as the strong volcanic tremor observed before the eruption. Careful seismic monitoring of Raoul Island will continue. Brad Scott reported on 3 April that activity continued to decline in the Green Lake crater area. The most recently available photographs showed the water level continuing to rise slowly in Green Lake, but it had not reached overflow level. Over the last few days the level of earthquake activity at or close to Raoul Island continued to decline and in early April there were only earthquakes per day being recorded.
Latter, J. This compilation of synonyms and subsidiary features may not be comprehensive. Synonyms of features appear indented below the primary name. In some cases additional feature type, elevation, or location details are provided. Anvil-shaped Raoul Island is the largest and northernmost of the Kermadec Islands.
During the past several thousand years volcanism has been dominated by dacitic explosive eruptions. Two Holocene calderas exist, the older of which cuts the center the island and is about 2.
Denham caldera, formed during a major dacitic explosive eruption about years ago, truncated the W side of the island and is 6. Its long axis is parallel to the tectonic fabric of the Havre Trough that lies W of the volcanic arc.
Historical eruptions during the 19th and 20th centuries have sometimes occurred simultaneously from both calderas, and have consisted of small-to-moderate phreatic eruptions, some of which formed ephemeral islands in Denham caldera. An unnamed submarine cone, one of several located along a fissure on the lower NNE flank, has also erupted during historical time, and satellitic vents are concentrated along two parallel NNE-trending lineaments.
The following references have all been used during the compilation of data for this volcano, it is not a comprehensive bibliography. Volc Seism , English translation.
Bull Volcanol , Volcanic hazards in the Kermadec Islands, and at submarine volcanoes between southern Tonga and New Zealand. Lloyd E F, Nathan S, New Zeal Geol Surv Bull , Richard J J, Kermadec, Tonga and Samoa. Are arc-type rocks the products of magma crystallisation? Petrogenesis of dacite in an oceanic subduction environment: Raoul Island, Kermadec arc.
The Denham caldera on Raoul volcano: dacitic volcanism in the Tonga-Kermadec arc. Raoul Island. Source: GeoNet Most Recent Bulletin Report: April BGVN Cite this Report Update on March eruption; new submarine volcanoes discovered This report discusses evidence for the end of the March eruption, and press releases announcing newly acquired multibeam bathymetry that disclosed submarine calderas on the flanks of Raoul Island and some adjacent volcanoes.
Information is preliminary and subject to change. All times are local unless otherwise noted March SEAN Cite this Report Possible steam emission A possible minor eruption occurred at about on 25 March, when apparent steam emission, resembling whales spouting, was reported.
Figure 1. Isobaths are in meters. Figure 2. Maps of Raoul Island taken from New Zealand governmental publications issued considerably prior to the eruption. A Sketch map of the entire island from Lloyd and Nathan, B A second sketch map showing key areas of volcanism during the past 4, years from Latter and others, C A more detailed view of Raoul caldera and the cratered interior of the island, with contour lines at 20 m intervals from Lloyd and Nathan, The northern caldera contains three small lakes: Blue Lake 1.
The island's high point is Moumoukai m. Unfortunately, the current report mentions a few other features undisclosed on these maps. Courtesy of GNS. Figure 3. Photo reportedly taken by the rescue helicopter pilot John Funnell of the area affected by the volcanic eruption on Raoul Island, 17 March
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