New Zealand

New Zealand

: dewhitton; July 7th, 2013

Photos of the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Area. There are many more on my Flickr site

Yes, it is hot enough to kill you. Stay on the paths.

"Artist's Pallet." The circular pool on the right is the "Champagne Pool." It is 75C at the surface, and is 70m deep. Water enters at the bottom at <150C

Carbon Dioxide bubbles on the Champagne Pool, which give it the name. The red material is iron deposits.

Sinter Surface

A wall of sulphur

A deep pond coloured by arsenic compounds.

A pool of boiling mud.

Tags: photos

9 comments — :

( 9 comments — Leave a comment )

thefoxaroo

2013-07-06 11:33 pm (UTC)

God loves New Zealand, he gave them boiling mud... etc, etc. :D

I'm amazed that trees grow in the area.

No mud but have you ever been to Mount Wingen?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_Mountain

dewhitton

2013-07-06 11:45 pm (UTC)

I have driven past there many times but never stopped. I should do that, one day.

thefoxaroo

2013-07-07 12:52 am (UTC)

I was there more than 20 years ago. Assuming it's unchanged there are two places of interest. There's the large sulphurous bed of ash that everyone finds easily, but at the time I was there there was also a hot fissure some distance away with gasses spewing out at a rate you'd expect from an industrial machine rather than a natural (or semi-natural) process. It was near the walking trail, but didn't have any markings or signs. If the local council have any sense they would have fenced it off though because it would have been rather hazardous.