By JO-MARIE BROWN
Tourists eager to witness the explosive power of White Island in the Bay of Plenty are being warned to steer clear of the volcano after Thursday's eruption, as more action is likely.
Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences volcanologist Steve Sherburn ventured onto the smouldering island yesterday to study the aftermath of the eruption, which formed a crater up to 120m wide.
A layer of volcanic material that "looks like dark grey apple crumble topping" now covered the eastern side of the island and was up to 20cm thick in places, he said.
Fresh magma had risen to the surface during the blowout and the creation of a new vent suggested that more explosive eruptions were likely.
"Tourists should exercise extreme caution because this sort of eruption can happen at any time and you would not want to be around when volcanic material was falling," Mr Sherburn said.
"We were wearing plastic hard-hats today but even they wouldn't have made much difference."
White Island continued to belch steam and ash 820m into the air yesterday.
The institute's seismograph needs repairing after several large rocks fell on it during the eruption.
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