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Published: December 20th 2012
Arrived at Rotorua after a journey through the actively volcanic "thermal region" of the North Island. It is peculiar to see steam rising from small craters by the side of the road with larger craters of boiling water and mud causing significant hazard zones if you are not careful to stick to the path. And the smell of sulfur, which hangs on the breeze, pervades the air even in the hotel at times.
We visited one such thermal tourist attraction at Wai-O-Tapu on our way to Rotorua. The photos here do not do the place justice. Many of the boiling craters of steam vents, mud pools and hot springs are the result of underground collapse of the ground and bear names like the Devil's Bath, Devil's Bath and Inferno Crater. The whole Volcanic Plateau region bears testimoney to the presence of hot rocks just beneath the surface. It stretches 180 km from White Island (currently just upgraded to Alert level 2 status - 'onset of activity'!) to Mt Ruapehu (which erupted last month!). It is here that the Pacific Plate is subducting beneath the Australian Plate which is causing partial melting of the lithosphere.
And in some of the
Sulfur
Sulfur or Sulphur?hot pools life flourishes in the form of Cyanobacteria (thermophiles) which is believed by some scientists to be where life first got started, back in the Precambrian, from similar organisms!
Adam and Eve?
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