Pink terraces: Remains founds

A team of New Zealand and American scientists have found what they believe to be part of the former world famous Pink Terraces.
After a 10-day survey of the floor of Lake Rotomahana, which finished on Tuesday, scientists say they have located the bottom two tiers of the Pink Terraces 60m under water.
The Pink and White Terraces were thought to have been destroyed by the 1886 eruption of Mt Tarawera.
Scientists used two autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to get sonar images which show crescent-shaped terraced structures covered with a brownish lake sediment in the same area where the Pink Terraces were before 1886.
The project was a collaboration of institutions, including GNS Science, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, the University of Waikato and the Te Arawa Lakes Trust.
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute is most famous for the discovery of the wreck of the RMS Titanic in 1985.
Project leader Cornel de Ronde of GNS Science said he could not believe it and was amazed when another scientist first showed him images of the Pink Terraces.
"It was quite remarkable," he said.
"It was almost surreal."
The team was very excited and surprised with the findings.
"There was pretty strong evidence to say these things had been blown up. We didn't think there was much likelihood of finding them."
He said the team was able to map the lake floor using very high-resolution images, then matched them to existing photos of the terraces taken before the eruption.
The terraces are on the western side of the lake, a couple of metres offshore from the steaming cliffs.
"They're in the exact same place but the lake has risen and buried them," Mr de Ronde said.
However the team did not know what had happened to the top half of the Pink Terraces and Mr de Ronde thought either it was not there, or it was buried under sediment.
He said the team did not have evidence to suggest what had happened to the White Terraces.
Mr de Ronde thought the public would never be able to see the terraces, as they are 60m under water.
Waimangu Volcanic Valley and Rotomahana Boat Cruises chief executive Harvey James saw the project in action on the lake, and thought the findings would increase tourist interest in Lake Rotomahana.
However he was a disbeliever about the team's findings to begin with.
"The best advice we'd had was the terraces had been destroyed."
When he saw the evidence he was amazed, considering how violent the 1886 eruption was.
"It's like a detective novel or science show on TV. It's just an amazing story, the whole thing."
The next step is to process the team's findings and analyse samples for publication.