Scientists are hoping to restore this lost wonder.
After more than 125 years of mystery, scientists think they have confirmed the final resting place of a natural wonder – dubbed the 8th wonder of the world. Thereby, they also shed some light on the results obtained from previous research.
On June 10, 1886, the Tarawera volcano suddenly woke up, erupted violently and buried the Pink Terraces and White Terraces at Lake Rotomahana, New Zealand.
Charles Bloomfield’s painting of the White Stairs in 1893.
It should be said a little more, of the two systems of stairs, the larger White Terraces have another name, Maori as Te Tarata . They cover an area of 3 hectares and have a total of 50 steps before bouncing down to the lake shore 40 meters below. Under the sun, the illuminated lake will appear more white.
The other step is the Pink Terraces , known locally as Otukapuarangi . These are stairs that bounce from a height of 30m through a distance of 75m.
The other step is the Pink ladder.
The water dissolved minerals crystallized over hundreds of years and when the sun shines, it will show beautiful colors. Both beautiful terraces are regularly supplied with water by two geysers located on Lake Rotomahana. However, the 1886 volcanic eruption destroyed everything.
For hundreds of years, scientists thought that this eruption completely destroyed, and disappeared, this wonder.
Image of wonders after the eruption of Mount Tarawera.
” The eruption caused massive destruction to the terraces in New Zealand’s North Island,” said Cornel de Ronde, a research geologist at GNS Science in New Zealand.
While experts believe that the White Steps have been completely destroyed, researchers have discovered that the Pink Steps are still hidden under the surface of Lake Rottomahana and are located about 60m deep under the mud layer.
More recently, scientists have hypothesized that these steps were buried on the lake’s shores in mild weather conditions and could restore the “undying reputation” of the place before.
We hope that we can witness this natural work in the near future.
It is known that Dr Sascha Nolden of the National Library of New Zealand found the diary of the German-Austrian geologist Ferdinand von Hochstetter who wrote a detailed description of the Pink and White stairs in 1859.
Although archaeologists are not sure if they have discovered this more than hundred-year-old relic, we hope that we can witness this natural work in the near future.
The study was published in the Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand.