Lost Glories, Found
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he dazzling Pink and White Terraces Researchers from Woods Hole Oceano- air. The same geothermal process creates on the shores of Lake Rotomahana graphic Institution (WHOI) who joined the geysers and mineral formations at atT one time were the greatest national trea- the expedition —Dan Fornari, Amy Kuku- Yellowstone National Park. sure of New Zealand. They were cherished lya, and Robin Littlefield—said they had At the White Terraces, scalding, silica- by the Maori and known far and wide as never worked on a project with such deep laden water burbled from a crater about the eighth natural wonder of the world. cultural meaning. “This was actually a 100 feet above the lake and cascaded down Then, during an immense volcanic erup- burial ground,” said Kukulya. “Some of the about 50 wide, scalloped steps. As the water tion in 1886, they disappeared. people we met lost their ancestors there.” cooled, silica precipitated out of solution, “It was such an iconic feature to the dribbling over the steps and creating for- country,” said Cornel de Ronde, the New Not just another hot springs mations that looked like candle wax. The Zealand geologist who led a team that The terraces formed when a magma White Terraces covered an area equivalent rediscovered the Pinks in 2011. “In terms chamber heated groundwater and sent it to seven football fields. The Pink Terraces, of the people’s psyche and what it means spurting out of the ground, carrying dis- about half a mile across the lake from the to them, the equivalent for Americans solved minerals that rapidly crystallized Whites, were smaller but still impressive. would be the Grand Canyon.” when the water contacted the much cooler The colors of the formations probably arose 42 OCEANUS MAGAZINE Vol. 49, No. 2, Spring 2012 | www.whoi.edu/oceanus The Pink Terraces were tucked next to a hook-shaped spit of land, with the White Terraces in the background and Mount Tarawera looming behind. from differences in mineral composition access to them, provided canoe transport, soaks in the terraces’ warm waters. Tourists ollections, or microbial populations in their waters. and ran a small hotel nearby. Despite their and locals alike used to clamber up and C To the Te Arawa, the Maori tribe remoteness, the terraces became a popular down the terraces looking for pools with with ancestral rights to the lake and its destination in the 1800s for wealthy Euro- just the right temperature to bathe in. surroundings, the White Terraces—or pean and American travelers with a taste One feature not visible in old photo- Te Tarata, “the tattooed rock”—were male. for adventure—and considerable stamina. graphs and paintings of the terraces was The Pinks—or Otukapuarangi, “fountain A trip to the terraces started with an the softness of the pool walls, caused by of the clouded sky”—were female. ocean voyage of weeks or months just to incomplete crystallization of the silica. “Like a lot of native peoples, the natural reach New Zealand. It continued with a Among the visitors surprised by their niversity of Otago. U environment is where they draw their spiri- 150-mile coach ride from Auckland to Ro- spongy texture was English novelist Lake Rotomahana, and Mount Pink and White Terraces, tual side of things from,” de Ronde said. torua, a 15-mile hike through the bush, a Anthony Trollope. “So those terraces were a really big deal.” 7-mile boat ride across Lake Tarawera, and “I can imagine nothing more delicious ca. 1870s. Hocken and gouache on paper, Watercolor larke Hoyte, The terraces also had great commercial finally a canoe ride on Lake Rotomahana. to the bather,” Trollope wrote. “In the C are Taoka o Hakena, are Taoka value to the Te Arawa, who controlled At journey’s end, travelers enjoyed long bath, when you strike your chest against John Tarawera. U WooDS hoLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTION 43 Three men enjoy a dip in a hot pool at geothermal activity persist: Geysers and the White Terraces, fumaroles dot the western shore, gas probably in the early bubbles rise to the surface in several parts 1880s. The scalding of the lake, and warm water occurs in water at the top of numerous locations. The world's newest the terraces cooled geothermal field, Waimungu, has arisen ealand Z at the southwest end of the lake. ew as it flowed down, N lbumen print. A so bathers could find A secret hope water that was “just right.” The bumpy Although he grew up hearing tales of ibrary, Wellington, Wellington, ibrary, L texture on the face of the Pink and White Terraces, de Ronde’s the pool is hardened primary reason for going to Lake Roto- silica that precipitated mahana was scientific, not cultural. He out of the water. wanted to investigate the lake because the nidentified photographer, ca.1880s. nidentified photographer, lexander Turnbull U A terraces are among the few examples in the world of an above-water geothermal system it, it is soft to the touch. You press yourself assess the damage faced an impossible task, that has been drowned, and the only one against it, and it is smooth. You lie upon it, said de Ronde. for which scientists have an exact timeline and though it is firm, it gives to you. You “When they were up on the hills above of its disappearance. plunge against the sides, driving the water where the terraces had been and looked He had studied other volcanic geother- over your body, but you do not bruise your- down towards where things should be, A, mal systems, but those were at the bottom self. I have never heard of other bathing they can’t recognize anything; and B, there of the Pacific Ocean. On a survey of the like this in the world.” was this steaming, deep rift where the lake Brothers Volcano on the seafloor northeast used to be. So everybody just thought the of New Zealand in 2007, he had worked Devastation terraces had been blown to pieces.” with WHOI scientist Dana Yoerger, using The eruption started just after midnight But even then, he said, a few observers a WHOI deep-sea autonomous underwater on June 10, 1886. It didn’t just blow the suggested that the terraces might not have vehicle, or AUV. Two years later, on an ex- top off a single peak. A series of eruptions been destroyed; that they might still be pedition to the Kermadec Arc seamounts, went on for hours and opened a rift more there, under the mud. he collaborated with Fornari, a marine than ten miles long—right through the Debris thrown out by the eruption geologist with decades of experience lake floor and beyond. blocked the stream that had drained the studying seafloor volcanism and undersea “It started at Mount Tarawera, and it old Lake Rotomahana, so as water contin- “hot springs” called hydrothermal vents. went northeast first and then it kind of ued to flow in, the crater began to fill up. A conversation with Fornari on that turned around and went southwest and un- Within 15 years of the eruption, a new lake cruise led to a collaboration to explore the zipped underneath the old Lake Rotomah- had formed, drowning the area where the geothermal system in the lake. Finding the ana,” said de Ronde. That’s when it turned terraces had been. terraces was never part of the official plan. most deadly. When the superhot magma Today’s Lake Rotomahana is about five “If you go to a government funding hit the cool lake water and water-saturated times bigger and up to 12 times deeper agency and say, ‘We’re going to look for ground, it caused a massive steam explo- than the pre-eruption lake. Its shores are something that 99.9 percent of people sion that opened a crater several times the once again thick with forest, and signs of thought was gone,’ you would have no size of the lake and hurled tons of lakefloor sediment for miles around. Rewiri, a Te Arawa “The whole lake was excavated, essen- man, sits in front of tially, and all of that mud and debris splat- a house at the village tered all the surrounding valleys, killed of Te Wairoa soon 120 people, and just devastated the land- after the 1886 scape,” said de Ronde. “For many, many eruption of Mount years this land was completely uninhabit- Tarawera. The village, able. We’re not just talking a sprinkling of which lay about ealand 7 miles from the Z ash. We’re talking meters thick of mud.” ew The Te Arawa who survived had little volcano, was almost N left but their lives. The entire tribe dis- completely buried by mud and ash. Fifteen persed, some moving up to 200 miles away ilver gelatin print. people died there. S ibrary, Wellington, Wellington, ibrary, and most having to ask permission to live L on other tribes’ land. Two other Maori The terraces had disappeared, but it was villages were also impossible to say what exactly had hap- destroyed, with no lexander Turnbull lexander Turnbull Burton Brothers, 1886. pened to them. A surveying party sent to survivors. A 44 OCEANUS MAGAZINE Vol. 49, No. 2, Spring 2012 | www.whoi.edu/oceanus LOST GLORIES, FOUND chance of getting the money,” de Ronde Scanning the lake driven propellers, steered by fins, and said. “I also didn’t want to get people’s Lake Rotomahana is still very isolated; guided by an onboard computer. They have expectations up, because to be honest, giv- to get there each day from their motel, the a long track record in ocean work, but they en what had been written, I wasn’t overly researchers drove 15 minutes on a highway, had rarely been deployed in lakes and never confident that we would find anything.