Waimangu Geyser

The Waimangu Geyser, located near Rotorua in New Zealand, was for a time the most powerful geyser in the world. The geyser began erupting in 1900. Its eruptions were observed reaching up to 1,500 feet (460 m) in height, and it excited worldwide interest. Day trip visitors from Rotorua were keen to see the geyser erupting regularly for 5–6 hours out of a cycle of about 36 hours, and a tourist trip called the "Round Trip" ran from the summer of 1902/1903. The geyser was the catalyst for tourism to the Waimangu Valley. Its workings were apparently created by the great 1886 Mount Tarawera eruption. The water expelled by the geyser was black with rocks and mud from the surrounding terrain, so the indigenous Māori people named the geyser Waimangu, meaning 'Black Waters'. The geyser gave its name to the surrounding geothermal region, the Waimangu Volcanic Rift Valley. Joseph Perry of the Limelight Department of the Salvation Army filmed the Waimangu Geyser in action. In August 1903, tourist guide Alfred Warbrick measured the depth of the 260-by-430-foot (80 m × 130 m) geyser lake at only 48 feet (15 m) when he launched a rowboat on the lake as a result of a dare. The lake's shallow depth was attributed to much of the ejected solid material falling back into the vent each time. On 30 August 1903, New Zealand rugby international Joe Warbrick, David McNaughton, and sisters Ruby and Cathe

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