Blast from the future

We should take care to learn the lessons of the Canterbury earthquakes.

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21st July, 2012

Fortunately, the recently instituted deep-earth monitoring observed the magma slowly working its way to the surface. Breaking out, it pushed up a cone not unlike its twin, Rangitoto (some 600 years older), erupting to fill the skies with ash, bombs, rocks and poisonous gases. Given the warning, few lives were lost. The primary eruption happened in the school holidays; children not already out of town were evacuated to school-based centres by teachers giving up their time off. But the physical destruction was great, not just from the cone and lava runs, but from the ash and debris so thickly ...

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