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Coandă and Venturi Effects at the Eighth Wonder of the World─ the White Terrace
  • Alfred Bunn
Alfred Bunn
Bunn, Bunn, Bunn

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Abstract

The grandest geotourism attractions in the southern hemisphere, in the nineteenth century were the siliceous Pink and White Terraces, the lost New Zealand Eighth Wonder of the World. In 1886, the Tarawera eruption buried the terraces. In the absence of a government survey or evidence of their locations; public debate over their survival ensued until the 1940s. Recently, a unique survey was uncovered and led researchers at last to the Terrace locations. Early colonial visitors were told by traditional landowners, that the major White Terrace spring erupted in strong easterly winds. Having researched the Pink and White Terraces for some years, this 1859 report puzzled me, as it did Ferdinand Hochstetter to whom the first report was made in 1859. From previous studies in automotive crankcase ventilation, I could see a potential causal pathway for these east-wind spring eruptions. After examining the topography of the White Terrace spring, embankment and apron: I suggest the puzzling eruptions were a product of three phenomenae: the Venturi and Coandă effects, with Bernoulli’s principle. This paper presents the evidence for the presence of Venturi and Coandă effects at the Lake Rotomahana Basin. More importantly, it discusses how these effects contributed to postulated spring eruptions during the 1886 eruptions; which created so far unexplained water ponding around the Pink, Black and White Terrace locations. These surface waters contribute to the new paradigm for the Rotomahana Basin during the 1886 eruptions; where the topographic changes lead today’s researchers to the lost Terrace locations around the shores of the new Lake Rotomahana.