Yesterday's visit to White Island brought new weight to the word awesome. White Island is a small island which is a volcanic cluster with several craters. Until 1913 the outer walls were a typical symmetrical volcanic island shape. Then a section of this outer wall collapsed killing sulphur miners living on the island.
With the outer wall gone, as one approaches the island there is a wide vista of the interior of the bubbling, steaming, active interior. Luna landscape maybe a cliché but it is hard to think of a better description. It is an inhospitable scene of jagged pointed rocks, white hot pressure mounds with steam seeping out, streams of white liquid acid laced with arsenic surrounded by sulphur streaked cliffs and huge noxious clouds of steam.
We were issued hard hats and gas masks and told what to do if there was an eruption of any kind. (Don't run – explosive material travels faster than bullets) The giant's foot was the most active of the vapor outlets and our guide was excited that there had been activity in the night and the walls of the maw were plastered with fresh material. We donned our gas masks as it was extremely toxic and caused coughing and sneezing. We passed a footprint of a visitor who had inadvertently stepped on the edge of a pressure mound. Fortunately a guide hauled him out before he was too burned. We hiked all the way to the lake, which was a clear pale turquoise, which comes from the minerals – the water was constantly heaving with the energy from underground steam vents.
I am pleased with photographs of puffy clouds of steam, bright yellow sulphur streams and vibrant colored rocks. It was by far the best volcanic experience I have ever had. Some visitors arrive by helicopter. The parked helicopters give a feeling of a desolate landscape after a catastrophe when the first visitors from the outer world arrive.
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