Tourists on a boat watch an iceberg, broken off from the glacier after Tuesday's earthquake, in the Tasman Lake, 200km (124 miles) southeast of Christchurch  |
The 6.3 magnitude earthquake that struck New Zealand on Tuesday, killing at least 75 people in Christchurch, also shook loose 30 million tons of ice from the nation's longest glacier, sending boulders of ice into a nearby lake.
The glacier is 200km (125 miles) away from Christchurch, near the west coast of the South Island, in Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park.
The ice was dislodged on Tuesday afternoon, just after the earthquake struck. The piece of ice was 1.2km (0.75 mile) long, 300m (330 yards) high and 75m (80 yards) wide. (Right: ice sheet with iceberg out to right of it)
The ice has broken up into icebergs now floating in the Tasman Lake, one of which is 250m long.
Tour boat operators in the area said parts of the Tasman Glacier calved into the Tasman Lake immediately after the quake, breaking into smaller icebergs and causing 3.5 meter-high (11-foot) waves. A group of tourists were on a boat in the lake at the time and were thumped by giant waves caused by the ice drop. The tourists were not in danger and were not injured.
"It was approximately 30 million tons of ice, it's just a massive, massive, massive scale," said Denis Callesen, the General Manager of Tourism at Aoraki Mount Cook Alpine Village. (Right: iceberg in Tasman Lake after quake)
He added the ice fall or 'calving' was expected, given the large amount of recent rain, the changing of the dynamics of the lake and the La Nina weather phenomenon, a factor in higher levels of rainfall.
"We have known for some weeks that an event was coming, what is just a complete curve ball, left field, is that it was the earthquake that set it off and caused the calving," Callesen stated. (Left: Tasman Lake)
Callesen added that icebergs now cover a quarter of the five km by two km Tasman Lake, which is about 200 km west of Christchurch on New Zealand's South Island.
Source:
Reuters,"NZ quake sends 30 million tons of ice loose from glacier",by Amy Pyett, accessed February 23, 2011
TNT Magazine, "Christchurch earthquake causes ice to fall off Tasman Glacier", accessed February 23, 2011
Indonesia's Mount Merapi (left) erupted on Thursday for the second time in a week, blasting vast plumes of ash into the sky, as the death toll from the initial eruption and a tsunami that hit remote western islands reached 377.
There were no immediate reports of new casualties after Merapi's second eruption. More than 40,000 people had fled or been evacuated from Merapi's slopes earlier in the week, but many started to return
after the volcano appeared to become calmer.
Officials said the death toll from a tsunami that hit the remote western Mentawai islands (map at right) on Monday had reached at least 343. The tsunami was triggered on Monday by a 7.5 magnitude quake. A day later, Mount Merapi on the outskirts of Yogyakarta city on Java island erupted, killing at least 34.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, (left) who had been due to take part 
in a summit of Asian leaders in Hanoi from Thursday to Saturday, flew back to Indonesia after the twin disasters.
"The president was very moved when he met the victims of the tsunami and earthquake," Yudhoyono's spokesman, Julian Pasha, stated, adding that the president planned to return to Hanoi before Saturday.
"He has issued instructions for all aid to continue to flow in without 
disruption."
Parts of an early warning system installed after a huge 2004 tsunami killed more than 226,000 people had been stolen but overall the system still worked, said the head of the meteorological agency, Sri Woro Harijono (right).
"Yes, some of our sensors disappear because they are stolen, such as 
seismographs and solar cells," she said. "But it is just one or three sensors out of 100. The system works fine."
Local media reported that parts of the tsunami early warning system had not worked properly because they had been vandalized or removed, while Metro TV broadcast footage of villagers questioning the effectiveness of the warning system.
"This has also been reported to the Agency for the Assessment and 
Application of Technology but we also need to make sure this information is verified properly," said Pasha.
"We know that when the quake happened, within 10 minutes this enormous tsunami came. So maybe the speed with which it came meant that the early warning system didn't work."
Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" (right) and is prone to 
earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Mount Merapi killed 1,300 people in 1930.
In December 2004, a tsunami caused by an earthquake of more than 9 magnitude off Sumatra killed more than 226,000 people. It was the deadliest tsunami on record. (Left: ruins of village swept away by current tsunami)
Source:
Reuters, "Indonesia disaster toll hits 377 as volcano erupts again", accessed October 28, 2010
The ice was dislodged on Tuesday afternoon, just after the earthquake struck. The piece of ice was 1.2km (0.75 mile) long, 300m (330 yards) high and 75m (80 yards) wide. (Right: ice sheet with iceberg out to right of it)
"It was approximately 30 million tons of ice, it's just a massive, massive, massive scale," said Denis Callesen, the General Manager of Tourism at Aoraki Mount Cook Alpine Village. (Right: iceberg in Tasman Lake after quake)
"We have known for some weeks that an event was coming, what is just a complete curve ball, left field, is that it was the earthquake that set it off and caused the calving," Callesen stated. (Left: Tasman Lake)
