Pink and White Terraces

Pink and White Terraces
The White Terraces by Charles Blomfield, 1884
Map
Location New Zealand
Bay of Plenty Region
Coordinates38°15′38″S 176°25′50″E / 38.26056°S 176.43056°E / -38.26056; 176.43056
Spring sourceŌkataina Caldera
TypeHot spring

The Pink and White Terraces (Māori: Te Otukapuarangi, lit. 'the Fountain of the Clouded Sky' and Te Tarata, 'the Tattooed Rock'), were natural wonders of New Zealand.[1] They were reportedly the largest silica sinter deposits on Earth.[2] They disappeared in the 1886 eruption of Mount Tarawera and were generally thought to have been destroyed, until evidence emerged in the early twenty-first century of their survival.[3]

The Pink and White Terraces were formed by upwelling geothermal springs containing a cocktail of silica-saturated, near-neutral pH chloride water.[4][2] These two world-famous springs were part of a group of hot springs and geysers, chiefly along an easterly ridge named Pinnacle Ridge (or the Steaming Ranges by Mundy).[5] The main tourist attractions included Ngahapu, Ruakiwi, Te Tekapo, Waikanapanapa, Whatapoho, Ngawana, Koingo and Whakaehu.

The Pink and the White Terrace springs were around 1,200 metres (3,900 ft) apart.[5] The White Terraces were at the north-east end of Lake Rotomahana and faced west to north west at the entrance to the Kaiwaka Channel. Te Tarata descended to the lake edge around 25 metres (82 ft) below.[2] The Pink Terraces lay four fifths of the way down the lake on the western shore, facing east to south-east. The pink appearance over the mid and upper basins (similar to the colour of a rainbow trout) was due to antimony and arsenic sulfides, although the Pink Terraces also contained gold in ore-grade concentrations.[6]

  1. ^ "Pink and White Terraces". Rotorua Museum. Archived from the original on 13 January 2015. Retrieved 30 July 2012.
  2. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference ReferenceA was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Pink and White Terraces: Niwa scientists confirm the location of NZ's lost natural wonder". 28 November 2018. Archived from the original on 8 November 2020. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
  4. ^ Ferdinand von Hochstetter (1867). New Zealand: Its Physical Geography, Geology and Natural History. Stuttgart: J. G. Cotta.
  5. ^ a b Keam, Ronald F. (15 March 2016). "The Tarawera eruption, Lake Rotomahana, and the origin of the Pink and White Terraces". Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research. The Lake Rotomahana Geothermal System and Effects of the 1886 Mt. Tarawera Eruption. 314: 10–38. Bibcode:2016JVGR..314...10K. doi:10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2015.11.009.
  6. ^ Hutching, Hamish Campbell & Gerard (2011). In search of ancient New Zealand. North Shore, N.Z.: Penguin. ISBN 978-0143206170.