James Metcalfe
In the early hours of the morning in June 1886, New Zealand was awoken harshly with the most destructive volcanic eruption ever seen on the continent. Triggered by a series of increasingly volatile earthquakes, the active volcano Mt Tarawera suddenly exploded, spewing up molten rock and ash as high up as 6.2 miles into the sky. With the death toll reported to be somewhere between 120 and 150 mostly native Maori and unimaginable terror and destruction on the local populace, the severity of the eruption is only heightened when you take into account there were so many warnings of the impending volcanic activity weeks prior to the explosion.
