Mount Ruapehu
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Mount Ruapehu is an active stratovolcano at the southern end of the Taupō Volcanic Zone and North Island volcanic plateau in New Zealand. It is 23 km northeast of Ohakune and 23 km southwest of the so
Mt Ruapehu from Tongariro Northern Circuit, 2023
Mount Ruapehu from the northwest, July 2026
Crater Lake and Tahurangi, the highest peak (top right) in 2016. The 1996 tephra dam is the bluish dark area at lake edge directly below Tahurangi.
Fresh lahar channels scar Ruapehu's eastern slopes, 2007.
Tangiwai disaster
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The Tangiwai disaster was a railway accident that occurred at 10:21 p.m. on 24 December 1953, when a railway bridge over the Whangaehu River collapsed beneath an express passenger train at Tangiwai, N
Mount Ruapehu
…and 2007 respectively, causing an outburst of Crater Lake each time, which sent destructive lahars down the river. The 1953 lahar was the cause of the Tangiwai disaster, a railway accident in which 151 people died. Even larger lahars occurred in 1862 and 1895. A total of 18 glaciers have been recognised on Ruapehu, of…
The wreckage of the KA locomotive, the sixth carriage and the rail bridge, in the Whangaehu River at Tangiwai, 25 December 1953.
The destroyed bridge after the disaster
Front page of the Auckland Star newspaper of 26 December 1953
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Karori Cemetery, 31 December 1953