One doesn’t have to be a geologist…

…but it would probably help. A comment posted by Barbara over at Rose’s Contrail site (and reproduced here by Clare at ChemtrailsNorthNZ), reads thus…

A friend of mine went canoeing in Lyttelton harbour recently with a companion who had lived in Lyttelton for years. he told me his companion took him to a new hot spring which had formed in the area of Cass Bay, after the Sept 2010 quake series began. It had not been there before. I have read a recent report saying that not only are there many hot springs that have “popped” up in the peninsula.. some of them are now boiling …

One doesnt have to be a geologist to connect the dots. I think that the volcano is indeed rumbling. Ruaumoko is coming to life. My only hope is that the authorities do the right thing and evacuate the area before many more lives are lost.

Now, I’m not sure what this ‘recent report’ refers to. Presumably it’s this…

I am attaching a pdf file which shows that geologists have been aware of and monitoring warm springs that have begun popping up in the christchurch for the past 25 years. The government and geologists cannot claim “no knowledge” of this. The published study shows this. Interestingly this publication in now very hard to find on the internet.. it was relatively easy to find up until two weeks ago.. makes one wonder why??

Neither Rose nor Clare bother to link to the aforementioned PDF (jauntily entitled “Hydrogeological implications of geology at the boundary of Banks Peninsula volcanic rock aquifers and Canterbury Plains fluvial gravel aquifers”), and apparently it’s “hard to find on the internet”. It does make wonder why, doesn’t it? Have the powers-that-be managed to nobble the internet so as to make this crucial information inaccessible to the worried public? Are ‘they’ covering things up? How could we circumvent their nefarious ways and track down a copy of said research?

How about typing the name of the article in Google? Ah, yes: fourth hit (no wonder it was hard to find!), full text PDF download from the New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics.

A read through of the article reveals that springs haven’t been “popping up” for the last 25 years, but have, in fact, been a known part of Banks Peninsula geology since they were first noted in 1884. Various drilling and surverys have revealed more warm water springs over the last hundred and something years. Nothing unusual there, then.

Of course, if new springs are ‘popping up’ now, post-earthquake, and they are ‘boiling’ as reported, that might be an indicator that something’s amiss, surely? The volcano is coming to life? What do the scientists say? Geonet have been kind enough to answer questions on the Banks Peninsula Volcano facebook page (yes, of course there’s a facebook page for that). A few Geonet comments worth noting…

…there have been reports that springs in the Lyttelton area have warmed up, but this is not a surprise following a large earthquake. After the 4 Sept earthquake, changes in springs and bores were seen all across Canterbury and beyond – even as far as parts of North Island. The shaking opens up small cracks and pores in the sediments beneath the earth’s surface and can let water move around – potentially bringing warm water from depth up through normally cool springs. After 4 September, GNS monitored bores around the country to watch the changes. So although the effects are likely to be most obvious near to the epicentre, they occur over a wide area.

The Banks Peninsula volcanos are long extinct with the last eruptions around 6 or so million years ago. There is no chance of them erupting again as the plate boundary conditions that allowed them to form in the first place no longer exist. 6 Million years is a long time in a volcano sense and volcanism that once existed along the east coast of the south island has long finished. All current and future volcanic activityin NZ will be located in the North Island.

If volcano unrest does occur we see quite different types of earthquakes from what we are seeing now. During volcano unrest we see earthquakes that indicate magma movement which are quite distinct from the tectonic earthquakes we see now.

All the scientific modelling of the data over the last weeks and months shows conclusively that the Canterbury earthquakes are due to fault movement only. There is no volcanic component to them at all. The ground deformation has also been modelled and this shows only fault related movement and nothing to suggest intrusion of magma beneath the Peninsula. Again if this were the case it would produce a quite distinct signatutre much different to what has been recorded.

Any hot springs in the area are also not volcano related, again water that is part of a volcanic system has quite different chemical make up to “non volcanic” hot springs and the 2 can be easily distinguished.

The fact that there are old volcanoes near to where the earthquakes are located is really just coincidence.

But they would say that, wouldn’t they.