Boiling mud pools of Rotorua

Posted by Aaron Schmidt (Auckland, New Zealand) on 11 January 2006 in Plants & Nature and Portfolio.

The entire city of Rotorua is located on an active volcanic field. (Lake Rotorua itself is a giant caldera.) In some places the molten magma is only 50m below the surface. Steam vents and mud pools and boiling lakes can be seen throughout the city, although most of them have been cordoned off into parks as tourist attractions. Here we see a mud bubble exploding from the pressure (it took a lot of patience and a lot of photos to get the timing right).

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Comments (12)

Shuva from Hyderabad, India

Looks like chocolate. Its a superb picture. Excellent!

11 Jan 2006 1:10am

Nadege from Issy les moulineaux, France

You are patient, and you take good picture, no problem for you Aaron.

11 Jan 2006 4:43am

Nadège from Paris, France

Hi ! just like Siba wrote yesterday, I look forward to discover NZ... and hope to meet you at last ! Amazing picture just as usual !

11 Jan 2006 4:59am

Jordi from New Zealand

Awesome! It looks to me like a metal object exploding into sharp splinters, despite the fact that the mud is actually so soft and silky smooth! You must have been patient and lightening quick to have captured the moment.... I’m sure a million Japanese tourists have tried! Speaking of tourists, I was guiding a group of Japanese through a park with mud pools and hot lakes, a few years back, when I noticed the pools seemed more active than usual. We were only 10min away by foot when there was a massive explosion. The whole park had erupted! Sending huge boulders, boiling mud and branches onto nearby roads and houses. Luckily no one was hurt. I happens from time to time. The locals just get used to it!

11 Jan 2006 5:21am

Jason Kravitz from Atlanta, United States

great timing - can you take a hot mud bath anywhere around here?
Jordi -that could have a been a touchy situation!

11 Jan 2006 9:07am

Aurélie from New Zealand

Rotorua is an amazing place for sure! being there, you realise that New Zealand is actually a big volcano and it is quite scary when you think about it! but it makes a magnificent, rich and unique landscape.

11 Jan 2006 3:07pm

Steve Kravitz from Florence, NJ, United States

Wow! What an incredible opportunity to see how nature has worked these past thousands of years.

11 Jan 2006 7:25pm

Kerstin from Paris, France

Doesn't it smell to bad ?? I heard that volcanos really stink due to the sulphur.

12 Jan 2006 4:31am

Aurélie from Auckland, New Zealand

Oh yes Kerstin ... forgot to mention the sulphur smell ! as soon as you are next to any type of geothermic source, you can smell of sulphur but in Roturua, with the wind blowing, the whole town smells of it. The camping site manager told us you can never get used to it :) which I believe!

12 Jan 2006 1:28pm