No Need For

Panic

Scientist's Report On Raboul's Volcanoes

From a Special Correspondent DUE to a mistake somewhere along the line, Rabaul residents have been caused much worry and anxiety over the possibility of Matupi blowing its top and removal of the township of Rabaul to a safer place.

Dr. Norman Fisher, Geologist and Vul canologist, during a recent visit to Rabaul intimated that it was not neces sary that Rabaul should be moved a great distance from its present site, and that it could be established with safety at Tavui, Nonga and Vara Vara areas and that the Rabaul Harbour could continue to be used with comparative safety as it is most unlikely that it would ever be closed by volcanic eruption. The pumice de posits on the harbour have nothing to do with the present volcanic activity at Rabaul. It would be just as unreason able, he said, to evacuate Mount Gambier in South Australia because it was an active volcano in past ages.

If it be thought, by some, that poisonous gases might emanate from the volcanoes at Rabaul, it should be com forting to know, Dr. Fisher stated, that there is no case known of volcanic eruptions being accompanied by poison ous gases which were, in themselves, a serious source of danger to human life.

The 30,000 deaths which occurred at St.

Pierre in Martinique in 1902 were caused by red hot dust charged with super heated steam and other gases. This flowed down on the town after being erupted from a volcano of considerable height. The law of gravity was respon sible for this. The Rabaul volcanoes, besides being of low altitude, are of an entirely different type which do not give rise to this type of eruption.

In the report published by Drs. Stehn and Woolnough, before the war, Dr.

Stehn really meant that an observatory should be established at Rabaul and that the town was not to be removed to any great distance. Dr. Fisher accompanied Dr. Stehn on a tour of Java in 1939 for several months, and is therefore in a position to know what Dr. Stehn’s real opinions were.

Because it was originally intended that a new capital of New Guinea be estab lished at Lae, Administration Officers and even Ministers of the Crown have been confused. The whole question of moving Rabaul is fraught with misun derstanding.

VOLCANIC eruptions can be predicted, if, and when they should take place at Rabaul, but at Rapopo (one of the sites that were being considered prior to Dr. Fisher’s revelation) earthquakes, which cannot be predicted, must inevit ably be experienced every few years as it lies within the zone of tectonic weak ness which exists across the Keravat- Warangoi Valleys, extends to Massava in the North Bainings and across the Gazelle Peninsula. This tectonic line of weakness is the source of violent earth tremors.

Being in complete contradiction to everything that has previously been pub lished and believed, Dr. Fisher’s state ments are enough to make any of us sit up and take notice. They must cer tainly alter all projected plans that have been made in regard to the future of Rabaul.

It should be remembered that Dr.

Fisher was official Vulcanologist in Rabaul for several years; that he made a close study of all the volcanic and seismic phenomena, including those leading up to the 1941 eruption of Matupi, and that he is in a position to speak with authority on these matters.