[ad_1]
The land and the sea were calm.
The plume of steam doubled the height of the volcano, but it was pure white. There was none of the ominous black ash that fell the day Whakaari / White Island killed 21 people.
On a boat near the shore, filmmaker Geoff Mackley was close enough to smell the sulfur. But there was no heat coming from the island, just a yellow chemical stain swirling in the ocean.
Mackley sent a drone into the clear sky to record the volcano, the first close-up footage since the December 9 eruption. He had to negotiate permission from the Civil Aviation Authority to enter the no-fly zone.
READ MORE:
* Whakaari / White Island eruption: New Zealand is still considered a safe destination
* Whakaari / White Island eruption – Tourists went to White Island even when government scientists were banned
* From nothing happening to Tarawera-like destruction – volcanic alert levels
* The Whakaari / White Island map shows the red zone of the volcano
* Whakaari / White Island: volcanoes, some of New Zealand’s most popular playgrounds
GEOFF MACKLEY
Whakaari / White Island silently spewed steam into a clear sky.
Through the drone’s screen, he saw mud, ash, and debris that covered the area where tourists roamed the crater rim. The place where the Defense Forces body recovery personnel spoke of going through boiling acid mud up to their knees.
But what Mackley saw was not a scene of total destruction; to the untrained eye, it is not obvious that a rash has occurred. It has covered its tracks and those that used to cross its surface.
“It’s not like before, where there were clearly defined tracks. They have been totally erased. It’s like no one was there. So yeah, it’s pretty unsettling. “
GEOFF MACKLEY
The abandoned helicopter with its flaccid blade is one of the few remaining signs of the eruption.
The only clear clue was the abandoned helicopter with its broken blade, standing as it is since the force of the blast at 2.11pm blew it off its landing platform.
The landscape was grayer than Mackley remembered, bleached by the pinks and yellows of tourist photos. She has been there several times, but the last visit was in 2013, to see the mud fountains.
An adrenaline junkie, his website calls him “filmmaker, explorer, idiot.” He has filmed dozens of volcanoes around the world, since he climbed Mount Ruapehu during the 1995 eruption.
“I call it a visual hero: once you’ve tried it once, you’ll keep coming back, even if it can cause harm.”
GEOFF MACKLEY
GNS scientists say Whakaari has returned to approaching normal activity.
As he watched the mountain silently puffing, he thought of the tragedy that happened there.
“I was not nervous. Obviously I know it can explode without warning at any time. It is Russian roulette. It’s not very likely that something will happen today, but if you went out every day, something will happen eventually.
“The volcano doesn’t care what we’re doing up there, it will do what it wants to do. It’s really unfortunate that it happened when it happened. There were another 20 hours in each day that it could have happened when no one was there, and all night.
“You obviously thought about what happened there and how terrible it would have been.”
GEOFF MACKLEY
Blankets of gray ash and debris have suffocated parts of the volcano.
Almost nine months after the eruption, no one has set foot on the volcano.
GNS scientists have been tracking its activity with gas flights by monitoring the vent and ground temperature and making observations from helicopters. The signs point to a slow cool down and calm.
In January, tremors sparked minor explosions.
NZDF
The Defense Force Corps Recovery Team spoke of going through boiling acidic mud up to their knees.
In May, an increase in carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide, key indicators of volcanic disturbances, suggested that new magma may have moved closer to the crater’s surface. The lava lobes surrounded by hot gases generated a visible glow in the night vision cameras.
But on June 16, the alert level was lowered to level 1, based on the “slowly decreasing level of volcanic activity.” While some molten rock remained about 1 km below the surface and the gas vents remained hot, at about 450 ° C, the gas levels had decreased.
“The volcano is behaving as it normally does,” says Mackley.
