NEW ZEALAND GEOTHERMAL SEARCH FINDS ANCIENT WONDER

Mission steps up and finds part of famed world wonder; Researchers locate half of Pink and White Terraces in a New Zealand lake
February 3, 2011 (MSNBC)

"A research mission to New Zealand has uncovered what scientists say is part of the former eighth wonder of the world — the Pink and White Terraces.

"Once New Zealand's most famous attraction, the Pink and White Terraces were steplike structures created by geysers spouting heated water down a hill and into a lake. Their pink and white colors came from silica deposits in the geyser water."

The pink and white terraces as they were before the 1886 eruption. (click to enlarge)

"The terraces vanished when Mount Tarawera erupted in 1886 and were presumed to be either destroyed or buried at the bottom of a lake.

"…[Ending more than a century of speculation about whether any part of the Pink and White Terraces survived the eruption, the] research team said they found the pink half of the terraces while they were studying the [geothermal] system under [Lake Rotomahana] where the terraces were buried…and how it evolved from an on-land geothermal system to a submerged one…"

New Zealand is at the far end of the geothermal-rich Ring of Fire. (click to enlarge)

"Underwater robots took pictures of crescent-shaped terraced structures covered by brownish lake sediment in about 200 feet of water where the Pink Terraces were before the eruption…The rest of the Pink Terraces were either destroyed during the eruption or are still concealed under thick sediment where the robots can't see…

"The scientists found no sign of the larger White Terraces in the part of the lake that matched their location prior to 1886. The two terraces were separated by several hundred feet before the eruption…"