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White Island Volcano Case Study

New Zealand’s Whakaari/White Island volcano erupted on Monday 9th December 2019. The strato or composite volcano, located on New Zealand’s east coast, erupted at 14:11 NZDT on 9 December 2019.

Whakaari lies at the northern end of the North Island’s ‘line of fire’ – a large volcanic plateau which stretches from the Bay of Plenty on the coast, to Mt Ruapehu inland. The line of fire forms part of the wider ‘Ring of Fire’ around the Pacific ocean.

It also has a water-filled crater lake. When water reacts with hot rock or magma, it can create explosions, and therefore, can make eruptions even more difficult to forecast.

The uninhabited island covers an area of approximately 325 ha (800 acres),  which is only the peak of a much larger submarine volcano. 

White Island is privately owned. It was declared a private scenic reserve in 1953. Visitors cannot land without permission, however, it is accessible by authorised tourist operators by boat and helicopter.

Why did White Island volcano erupt?

There are several volcanoes in New Zealand, like White Island, that have the ability to produce sudden explosive eruptions at any moment. In the case of White Island, the magma is very shallow, and the heat and gases produced by it affect ground and surface water to create vigorous hydrothermal systems.

Water is trapped in a super-heated state in pores of the rocks. An external influence, such as gas input from below, an earthquake or a change in water level can release the pressure on the hot water trapped below.

Experts identified the event as a phreatic eruption. A phreatic eruption involves the release of steam and volcanic gases which caused an explosion, launching rock and ash 3km into the air. The speed of the expansion of water into steam is supersonic, and the liquid can expand to 1,700 times its original volume. The expansion energy is enough to shatter solid rock, create craters and throw volcanic material several kilometres away.

What were the impacts of the eruption of White Island?

It was reported that there were 47 people on the island when the eruption occurred. Eighteen people were killed and a further 26 were seriously injured, many critically. Many of the surviving tourists on the island experienced burned lungs from inhaling sulphur dioxide and volcanic ash, and “very significant” deep-tissue burns, some to more than half of their body. Twenty-seven of the 31 people injured in the eruption of the Whakaari/White Island volcano had burns to more than 30% of their body.

The bodies of two victims have not been recovered and may have been lost to the sea.

The ongoing seismic and volcanic activity in the area and subsequently heavy rainfall as well as low visibility and toxic gases all hampered recovery efforts.

What are the long-term impacts of the eruption?

It is too early to say what the long term impacts of the eruption will be, however, there is likely to be a negative economic impact on the companies providing island tours.

What were the immediate responses to the eruption of the White Island volcano?

23 people were rescued from the island. It was estimated that there were less than 50 people on the island at the time of the eruption.

Seven helicopters were dispatched to the island by St John Ambulance.

Tour operators rescued people roughly 15 minutes after the eruption.

A national warning was issued for the eruption

Aviation authorities implemented a 26 nautical mile no-fly zone around the island to help rescue crews. White Island is 22 nautical miles offshore.

The New Zealand Red Cross activated the Family Links website for those concerned that their loved ones may have been caught up in the incident.

The military deployed drones at first light the following day to assess the situation on the ground.

A team of six New Zealand soldiers wearing breathing apparatus and special fire-retardant suits battled heat stress as they recovered six of the victims of the Whakaari/White Island volcano eruption four days after the eruption.

Australia offered additional support to the New Zealand medical services after requests from the New Zealand government.

New Zealand health authorities reportedly ordered 1.2 million sq cm of skin from the US in order to treat those injured: 27 of whom had burns to more than 30% of their body, with some having burns to 90-95% of their body. For context, experts say the palm of a hand is about 1.5% of the area of the body.

Why were there no warnings?

In this age of technology and volcanic monitoring , it seems strange that there should be little or no warning for eruptions such as this. However, the eruption is not caused by magma, but by steam, and this is much harder to track in our current monitoring systems.

Monitoring and warning for phreatic eruptions are very challenging. It is difficult to predict when they will occur. Most systems are already primed for explosive eruptions, but their triggers are poorly understood.

The warning period for such eruptions is in seconds to minutes. The potential for monitoring and anticipating these events lies in tracking vapour and liquid pressure in the system. Unfortunately, there are no simple rules to follow as each hydrothermal system is different.

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Can you describe the location of Mount Etna? Could you draw a sketch map to locate Mount Etna?

Case study task

Use the resources and links that can be found on this page to produce a detailed case study of the 2002-2003 eruption of Mount Etna. You should use the 'Five W's" subheadings to give your case study structure.

What happened?

The Guardian - Sicilian city blanketed in ash [28 October 2002]

When did it happen?

Immediately before midnight on 26 October 2002 (local time=GMT+1), a new flank eruption began on Mount Etna. The eruption ended after three months and two days, on 28 January 2003.

Where did it happen?

The eruption occurred from fissures on two sides of the volcano: at about 2750 m on the southern flank and at elevations between 2500 and 1850 m on the northeastern flank.

Why did it happen?

Mount Etna is a volcano. The reasons why Mount Etna is located where it is are complex. Here are some of the theories:

• One theory envisages a hot spot or mantle-plume origin for this volcano, like those that produce the volcanoes in Hawaii.
• Another theory involves the subduction of the African plate under the Eurasian plate.
• Another group of scientists believes that rifting along the eastern coast of Sicily allows the uprise of magma.

Who was affected by it happening?

• The Italian Government declared a state of emergency in parts of Sicily, after a series of earthquakes accompanying the eruption of forced about 1,000 people flee their homes.
• A ship equipped with a medical clinic aboard was positioned off Catania - to the south of the volcano - to be ready in case of emergency.
• Emergency workers dug channels in the earth in an attempt to divert the northern flow away from the town of Linguaglossa.
• Schools in the town have been shut down, although the church has remained open for people to pray.
• Villagers also continued their tradition of parading their patron saint through the streets to the railway station, to try to ward off the lava flow.
• Civil protection officials in Catania, Sicily's second-biggest city, which sits in the shadow of Etna, surveyed the mountain by helicopter and were ready to send water-carrying planes into the skies to fight the fires.
• The tourist complex and skiing areas of Piano Provenzana were nearly completely devastated by the lava flows that issued from the NE Rift vents on the first day of the eruption.
• Heavy tephra falls caused by the activity on the southern flank occurred mostly in areas to the south of the volcano and nearly paralyzed public life in Catania and nearby towns.
• For more than two weeks the International Airport of Catania, Fontanarossa, had to be closed due to ash on the runways.
• Strong seismicity and ground deformation accompanied the eruption; a particularly strong shock (magnitude 4.4) on 29 October destroyed and damaged numerous buildings on the lower southeastern flank, in the area of Santa Venerina.
• Lava flows from the southern flank vents seriously threatened the tourist facilities around the Rifugio Sapienza between 23 and 25 November, and a few days later destroyed a section of forest on the southwestern flank.
• The eruption brought a heightened awareness of volcanic and seismic hazards to the Sicilian public, especially because it occurred only one year and three months after the previous eruption that was strongly featured in the information media.

Look at this video clip from an eruption on Mount Etna in November 2007.  What sort of eruption is it?

There is no commentary on the video - could you add your own explaining what is happening and why?

You should be able to use the knowledge and understanding you have gained about 2002-2003 eruption of Mount Etna to answer the following exam-style question:

In many parts of the world, the natural environment presents hazards to people. Choose an example of one of the following: a volcanic eruption, an earthquake, or a drought. For a named area, describe the causes of the example which you have chosen and its impacts on the people living there. [7 marks]

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Case studies.

Left:  Mt. Pinatubo eruption plume, July 1991, from Clark Air Base control tower.  Photo by J.N. Marso, U.S. Geological Survey.

The effects of several historic eruptions have been observed and the impacts of larger, prehistoric eruptions can be estimated.

Estimates of the fraction of sunlight transmitted through stratigraphic aerosols after major eruptions. Roza refers to a flood basalt eruption in the northwestern United States. Graph from Rampino and others (1988).

The pages in this section explore the following case studies for their impact on global climate

Impact of some major historic eruptions.

Data from Rampino and Self, 1984.

• Mt. Pinatubo, Philippines - 1991
• El Chichon, Mexico - 1982
• Krakatau - 1883
• Tambora, Indonesia, 1815
• Laki, Iceland - 1783
• Toba, Indonesia, 75,000 years ago

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• 17 August 2022

Huge volcanic eruptions: time to prepare

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Michael Cassidy is an associate professor of volcanology at the University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.

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Lara Mani is a research associate at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, University of Cambridge, UK.

Tonga Geological Services staff making observations of the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha‘apai volcano. Credit: Tonga Geological Services/ZUMA/Alamy

The massive eruption of the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha‘apai volcano this January in Tonga, in the south Pacific Ocean, was the volcanic equivalent of a ‘near miss’ asteroid whizzing by the Earth. The eruption was the largest since Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines blew in 1991, and the biggest explosion ever recorded by instruments.

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Mani, L., Tzachor, A. & Cole, P. Nature Commun. 12 , 4756 (2021).

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Newhall, C., Self, S. & Robock, A. Geosphere 14 , 572–603 (2018).

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Rougier, J., Sparks, R. S. J., Cashman, K. V. & Brown, S. K. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 482 , 621–629 (2018).

Aubry, T. J. et al. Nature Commun. 12 , 4708 (2021).

Aubry, T. J. et al. Bull. Volcanol. 84 , 58 (2022).

Mahalingam, A. et al. Impacts of Severe Natural Catastrophes on Financial Markets (Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies, 2018).

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Deligne, N. I., Coles, S. G. & Sparks, R. S. J. J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth 115 , B06203 (2010).

Giordano, G. & Caricchi, L. Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 50 , 231–259 (2022).

Costa, F. et al. Disaster Prev. Manag. 28 , 738–751 (2019).

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