<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2600.0" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>On Thursday 17 March at ~1435 hrs, a blowout was observed from within the northern end of Ruapeka Bay on Lake Rotorua, at Ohinemutu. It shot dark grey muddy waters and steam to ~6 m high for 3-4 minutes. Witnessed by Mrs Maxwell (wife of councillor Trevor). She rang council safety inspector Peter Brownbridge.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>On Friday 18 March at ~1500 hrs, Peter saw two more shots each ~1 m high from same centre in lake. This is a new vent not previously known of. It is ~25 m NW from a clear flowing hot spring known simply as S1233, in the bed of the lake just 10 m west from the tip of Muruika Point. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>This is where a prehistorical account relates of a sunken village, where a sudden disturbance occurred one night and many people were killed. From verbal geneology records, this event may have occurred about early 1700s-1720s? Could have been related to an earthquake or hydrothermal eruption that overwhelmed a settlement there? Today rows of timber posts are still standing below waterlevel in the lake here. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Ashley Cody</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>