Allure of risk
An active volcano that could blow at any time without warning. It sounds like a recipe for disaster – and that, of course, was part of its appeal.
An active volcano given to what scientists describe as ‘‘impulsive, shortlived’’ eruptions doesn’t sound perfect for tourism.
But taking in such a volcano is a must-see for many visitors, and in New Zealand the experience can be quick, accessible and well-priced.
Mt White, named by Ma¯ ori as Te Puia o Whakaari (dramatic volcano), is especially good for time-pressed tourists. By boat it’s about 80 minutes and, with an hour on the island, it can be done in half a day.
About 18,000 tourists visit the volcano each year.
Visitors probably think more about price ($229 by boat) than risk, although they will soon get the idea the island is no ordinary walk in the park.
White Island Tours, the official tour operator for the island and owned by local iwi Nga¯ ti Awa, warns its passengers: ‘‘There is always a risk of eruptive activity regardless of the alert level.’’
The risk is reinforced by safety briefings, the signing of waivers and the distribution of safety gear, including a gas mask and hard hat.
Once on the island, visitors might see a shipping container strategically placed in 2016 to act as a sort of bunker, should the volcano misbehave.
None of these precautions and safety measures were enough for some of the 47 people on the island on Monday. The 47 comprised two groups, one that was close to the eruption. At the time of writing, five in that group had been killed, and eight were missing presumed dead.
Decisions about running and taking tours like those to White Island come down to risk.
Visitors, essentially trusting that everyone knows what they are doing, would be entitled to assume that, if the tours were allowed to operate, the risk was low. Perhaps as low as flying in a helicopter or doing a bungy jump.
Adventure tourism is inherently risky. That is part of the attraction. So were the visitors of Whakaari/White Island on Monday just incredibly unlucky, or were there faults in the system?
And were the tour operators, who had a vested interest in ensuring the trips go ahead, negligent in the way they assessed the risks?
A volcano with form
White Island, a 2-kilometrewide, 321-metre-high tip of a 1.6km submarine mountain about 48km from Whakata¯ne, has been active for more than 150,000 years, sending gas, ash and blocks of rock into the air at irregular intervals.
The period between 1975 and 2001 saw frequent small eruptions, making it the island’s most active period in hundreds of years. In the past 20 years it has erupted several times, with an outburst in August 2012 that coincided with a similar event at Mt Tongariro. Within a few months its prized crater lake, coloured an unusual green, was gone after the island spewed lava – appearing on the surface as a black, craggy dome.
In October 2013, the volcano filled the sky again with a moderate eruption that could have killed anyone who was near at the time.
Sulphur was mined on the island between the 1880s and 1930s. In 1914, 11 miners were killed by an avalanche when part of the crater rim collapsed.
People have visited the privately owned island for decades. It was bought by Auckland sharebroker George Buttle in 1936 and, although the government tried to buy it back in the 1950s, a compromise was reached and it was declared a private scenic reserve in 1953, making it subject to the Reserves Act 1977.
In 1997, Nga¯ ti Awa was appointed the official guardian of the island by the Buttles, and its company White Island Tours is the main boat tour operator.
Monday’s deadly impulse
Monday’s eruption was pretty much the same as many of the small and large eruptions over the last millennia.
GNS Science vulcanologist Geoff Kilgour says the initial eruption lasted a few minutes and was similar to a 2016 eruption, when a similar-size plume was produced.
‘‘There were some rather substantial rocks that were thrown out and kind of a ground-hugging flow was sent across the crater floor to the sea, which is about a kilometre away from the vent.’’
His fellow vulcanologist at
GNS, Steve Sherburn, explains the eruption as rock and other material in the crater giving way to steam pressure underneath. ‘‘You get this sudden depressurisation, same as sort of taking the top off of a soft drink bottle, or pulling the cork out of a bottle of champagne. It depressurises and the materials underneath rise very, very quickly.
‘‘And in the case of a situation like [Monday’s] eruption, it fractures and fragments all the overlying rock, some of it into really fine particles like ash.
‘‘Some of it could be much, much larger particles – golf-ball size, cricket-ball size, pumpkin size, you know, it could be could be really large. Large eruptions can even throw things the size of small cars.
‘‘Because the eruption has occurred close to – possibly from within the lake – there could be a lot of water projected at the same time so you can get really quite a mixture of material.’’
Assessing the risk
The decision about whether it was safe to take people to the island rested with tour operators who had information from a number of sources.
GNS provides updates on the island through its geological
hazard monitoring system – the GeoNet project. The system uses web cameras, a seismograph and a microphone.
GNS scientists also make regular visits to test water, gas and soil, as well as looking for surface deformation.
The GeoNet project manages the New Zealand Volcanic Alert Level system that rates activity from zero to 5, with 5 being a major eruption.
Activity before Monday’s eruption was rated at level 2, indicating ‘‘moderate to heightened volcanic unrest’’.
The level was raised due to increasing amounts of sulphur dioxide gas, along with volcanic tremors – both of which can signal rising magma deep in the volcano.
GNS vulcanologist Michael Rosenburg says the increase of sulphur gas and an increase in tremors do not amount to a strong signal.
‘‘White Island volcano is really complicated and, just because one thing changes, it doesn’t necessarily mean that everything else will change, and it doesn’t necessarily mean that this is going to lead to an eruption.’’
Nevertheless, when an eruption does arrive, it gives little warning.
Kilgour describes it as going from ‘‘nothing to something’’ within a couple of seconds.
‘‘It’s a bit like a lightning strike: Sure they happen and they’re quite rare, but they happen in a short instance.
‘‘It’s very unfortunate for people to be on the island during an eruption in general, especially if they don’t go to the island all the time.
‘‘For a tourist, they are there once in their life and it’s a very rare occasion.’’
His colleague Sherburn says scientists detected higher amounts of sulphur dioxide for most of the year.
‘‘But we haven’t, for example, seen the disturbances in the volcanic crater lake. It’s been quite stable for several weeks. Some of the temperatures from some of the steam vents we’ve measured on the island have been going down, not going up.’’
Oversight of tours
Tour operators like those running trips to White Island work under the Health and Safety at Work (Adventure Activities) Regulations 2016.
The regulations require adventure activity operators to undergo a safety audit and register with WorkSafe New Zealand before advertising or providing the activity for payment.
A landowner or manager is considered to be a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) under the regulations, and as a result they are a ‘‘duty holder’’.
Where there is payment for use of land for adventure activities, eg a seasonal payment or a percentage of any admission fee paid, the landowner or manager ‘‘must take all practicable steps to ensure that the adventure activity is conducted safely’’.
White Island Tours appears to be the only White Island operator registered with WorkSafe and has previously won safety awards.
Fines for operating outside the registration system range from $10,000 to $50,000.
WorkSafe says getting tourists to sign waivers does not absolve employers from their obligations under the Health and Safety at Work Act.
Employers have to ensure, so far as it is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of their workers and other people who could be put at risk by the work of the business.
Bill Hodge, a former law lecturer at the University of Auckland, says tourists would not be able to take personal civil action against tour operators in New Zealand unless they sought punitive damages, claiming the operators had been irresponsible.
Compensation could not be sought for injuries, because of the ACC system.
Various agencies and emergency services have responsibilities over White Island. In 2017, the Government and the Bay of Plenty Civil Defence Emergency Management Group signed a memorandum of understanding setting out responsibilities around readiness and response to an eruption.
But the volcano doesn’t appear to come under the authority of any city or district council, which would usually have had these responsibilities under the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act 2002.
At the time, the group’s chairman, former Tauranga mayor Greg Brownless, said staff would be liaising with tour operators ‘‘to ensure the risks to visitors on the island are managed appropriately’’, along with GNS Science, which regularly communicated to the public about the island, and with police, to ensure any search and rescue plans for the island are prepared and current.
Risk too great
Emeritus Professor Ray Cas, from the school of earth, atmosphere and environment at Monash University in Melbourne, has visited White Island twice and believes the risks faced by daily tour groups are too great.
‘‘White Island has been a disaster waiting to happen for many years.’’
His explanation of an eruption highlights the dangers he is talking about. ‘‘Most of the material that is explosively ejected is hydrothermally altered country rock from around the geothermal vents, but sometimes the ejected material includes fragments of fresh magma.
‘‘In addition to the hot rock fragments and fragments of magma, large volumes of volcanic gas and superheated steam are released, which produce a hot plume of gas and rock that rises above the vent, sometimes to heights of thousands of metres.
‘‘The temperature of the erupting mass can be several hundred degrees Celsius. Hazards include rock projectiles, noxious gases and burns from the hot gas cloud.’’
Answers needed
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has told Parliament there will be ‘‘bigger questions in relation to this event’’.
‘‘These questions must be asked and must be answered.’’
Those answers will show whether academics such as Cas are right, and that yet again a tragic event was needed to highlight gaps in New Zealand’s adventure safety systems.