White Island anniversary passes quietly, with healing – and reckoning – far from over

Two years ago New Zealand’s Whakaari volcano eruption killed 22 people and changed the lives of many others forever

On a pristine day two years ago, a group of mostly international day-trippers boarded boats and chugged over to Whakaari/White Island, a small active volcano and popular tourist destination 48km off New Zealand’s east coast. The guests roamed the moon-like landscape, observing the strangeness of a bubbling, living rock. But below the surface, pressure was building.

At 2.11pm, while 47 people were on the island, the volcano erupted, spewing a mushroom cloud of steam, gases, rock and ash into the air. The eruption killed 22 people, seriously injured 25 and changed the lives of many families forever. It became the country’s deadliest volcanic disaster since the 1886 eruption of Mount Tarawera.

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source https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/09/white-island-anniversary-passes-quietly-with-healing-and-reckoning-far-from-over

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