Auckland New Zealand Unprepared for Volcanic Eruption under the city

Auckland volcano danger drowned out
Last updated 09:57 23/08/2012

Aucklanders may get only a day or two warning of a volcanic eruption and will only know hours before where it will explode on the surface, a scientific paper says.

The 1.4 million people living on the Auckland Volcanic Field (AVF) make too much noise for existing instruments to hear what is coming up from below.

"This means that localisation of a future eruption site is only likely to occur within a few hours or days of an eruption," the paper in the Journal of Remote Sensing of Environment said.

Each new vent in a place like Auckland will occur at a new location, rather than an existing volcano, creating uncertainty over where it will hit.

The scientists said they have used a variety of devices and models to explore in a new way the lava flows of the 360sqkm AVF, which holds 50 monogenetic volcanoes – that is single vents that erupt in one go. Polygenetic volcanoes – such as Ruapehu – erupt from the same craters regularly.

They said the city, especially south Auckland, will probably suffer more damage from lava flows than the early stages of the eruption.

"The City of Auckland is highly susceptible to lava flows, which are likely to travel further, and be potentially more destructive to infrastructure over longer periods....

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