Pink steps ‘are the 8th wonder of the world’

Originally posted by Newbomb Turk

Originally posted by Vicky32
My grandfather did a landscape painting of the Pink and White Terraces just before the eruption! I always wished my Mum still had it...
Vicky
So, it's good news that some have been found!

That's nice. Hey so Englishwoman in New Zealand NOT in the USA please note....what is that supposed to mean I wondering? K thanks

Oh, that's because some Americans have accused me of being unpatriotic, or even treasonous because of criticisms I have made against US troops/foreign policy.. and also, of not understanding US laws or coming from some weird state where the law is different - and they simply never noticed my location before saying these things, so I decided to emphasise it...
(I don't mean that there's anything wrong with being in the USA - it's just that I am not, which is sometimes relevant to my posts... )
Vicky

Originally posted by aorAki

My great granddad rode his horse across them.

reply to post by WestWood

 

Those are only the 'half of it' though.Aotearoa had the Pink ones as well.

edit on 4-2-2011 by aorAki because: (no reason given)

Wow, how cool is that! Marvellous...
Vicky

This part of the world sure has it's wonders, as well as it's dangers. I posted on this Weirdest Natural Phenomena thread last year which included information about the Pink and White Terraces, along with some other phenomena in the area. I'll repost it here as I think it is relevant and contains some other information which people might find interesting. Enjoy

Waimangu Geyser

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/f0b0e45effe3.jpg[/atsimg]
Image Source: Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa

Between 1900 and 1904, the Waimangu Geyser (waimangu is Māori for “black water”) near Rotorua, New Zealand would consistently erupt to heights of at least 150 meters, and sometimes reached the incredible height of 460 meters (1,500 feet)! It only existed for a relatively short period of time, but managed to attract a good number of tourists.

The geyser's life was brief and spectacular. Eruptions of muddy water and large rocks to heights of 150 metres were common, and there were occasional super-eruptions to the remarkable height of 460 metres. In comparison, the tallest currently-active geyser in the world (Steamboat geyser, in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming) erupts to maximum heights of 100 metres. The top of Auckland’s Sky Tower is about 330 metres above street level.

Not surprisingly, a tourist industry sprang up around Waimangu geyser. Accommodation for tourists, overlooking the geyser basin, was built in the summer of 1902–3. Throughout 1903, the geyser increased in activity, and increasing numbers of visitors flocked to see the spectacle. However, a tragic event occurred that year: four tourists ventured closer to get a better view, but were swept away and killed by a sudden eruption. The geyser began to wane in 1904, and by November of that year activity stopped as suddenly and inexplicably as it had started.

Source

I grew up within an hours drive of this area. Although this behemoth of a geyser no longer exists, there is still plenty of geothermal activity in the vicinity to this day. This is due to it's position in the Taupo Volcanic Zone. However, this geyser was created by a much more explosive event.

Tarawera Eruption

Shortly after midnight on the morning of 10 June 1886, a series of more than 30 increasingly strong earthquakes were felt in the Rotorua area and an unusual sheet lightning display was observed from the direction of Tarawera. At around 2:00 am a larger earthquake was felt and followed by the sound of an explosion. By 2:30 am Mount Tarawera's three peaks had erupted, blasting three distinct columns of smoke and ash thousands of metres into the sky. At around 3.30 am, the largest phase of the eruption commenced; vents at Rotomahana obliterated the Pink and White Terraces and produced a pyroclastic surge that destroyed several villages within a 6 kilometre radius.

The eruption was heard clearly as far away as Blenheim and the effects of the ash in the air were observed as far south as Christchurch, over 800 km south. In Auckland the sound of the eruption and the flashing sky was thought by some to be an attack by Russian warships.

Source. For those who want to know more.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/44032803f40b.jpg[/atsimg]
Here is an artist's rendition of the eruption. No doubt, it was a tragic day for those affected by this eruption. It took many lives and many homes. Not only that, it destroyed what some described as the eighth wonder of the natural world. They were a popular tourist attraction, that was lost due to this cataclysm of nature.

Pink and White Terraces

The end result of the eruption was that the topography of this area was completely changed.

This area was world-famous for the Pink and White Terraces which were considered the eighth wonder of the world. Situated at the base of Mt. Tarawera people came from far and wide to view them. Over thousands of years the spray from a geyser had formed the terraces by leaving a silica coating over the surrounding area. It created a fan like staircase in beautiful shades of pink and white which covered about seven and a half acres, (3 hectares). The White Terraces, or Te Tarata, were a series of curved silica basins filled with turquoise blue water. The lowest basin was 800 feet long and the white terraces stood 100 feet high. The Pink Terraces rose more steeply, rather like a giant staircase, were as smooth as enamel and pink like coral. These were known by the Maori as Otukapuarangi, or 'Cloud in the Heavens'.

Tourists would bathe in the warm waters of both terraces with the White Terraces offering a greater variety of temperatures while the Pink Terraces contained water that was softer and silkier.

source
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/8e76069c9214.jpg[/atsimg]Pink Terraces

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/5a39bbafb873.jpg[/atsimg]White Terraces

Also, I would like to add an article I came across recently. After the eruption of Mount Tarawera, the topography of the surronding area was altered dramatically. A vast chasm was created which then flooded the terraces in about 60m of water, under what is now Lake Rotomahana
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/da25bcd75906.jpg[/atsimg]
In this photo, you can see Mt Tarawera, with Lake Rotomahana in the foreground. Somewhere beneath the waters lies the location of what used to be the Pink and White terraces.

Remains of Pink Terraces Found
Scientists say they have found remains of the Pink Terraces at the bottom of Lake Rotomahana.
The discovery was made during a joint New Zealand and American project to map the lake floor and investigate the geothermal system.

Side-scan sonar and bathymetric data collected by two underwater vehicles show crescent-shaped terraced structures in about 60m of water where the terraces were located prior to 1886, scientists revealed at a media conference this morning. Underwater photos showed terrace edges and lake floor sediments.

The world-famous Pink and White Terraces were destroyed and vanished in the eruption of Mt Tarawera in June 1886. Project leader Cornel de Ronde of GNS Science said scientists found no sign of the larger White Terraces in the part of the lake where they were located prior to 1886.

source

So it appears some of the the terraces may have survived the blast, only to be flooded and covered in sediments. While it is sad that such a magnificent wonder was lost to us, we must accept that our world is not static. It is a highly dynamic world we live in as it is constantly moving and changing, which is how we came to get these wonders in the first place.

Pink and White Tearrace sand being sold for over $1 million.

Here's a link to a thread i made. I should have just posted it as a reply but nevermind.
Link

Peace 2 all