When you purchase through links on our site , we may earn an affiliate commission . Here ’s how it work on .
New maps have revealed a hidden hydrothermal arrangement beneath a fabled lake in New Zealand , which serve as the setting for a illustrious Māori passion story .
Lake Rotorua sits at the tenderness of a massive ancient volcanic crater of a dormant volcano on New Zealand ’s North Island . The lake has a storied history : it is where the daughter of an influential chief is said to have overcomeforbidden loveby swimming across the lake to be with a young warrior .
Map of Lake Rotorua.
The Rotorua orbit is also well known for hydrothermal activeness , with theTourism New Zealandwebsite stating that cloud of steam trend around the lake ’s shore , and that S give a " magical dark-green - blue " color to the water supply .
Researchers at GNS Science , a research institute in New Zealand , have now mapped Lake Rotorua ’s storey in never - before - see detail , revealing bang crater , an ancient river and a large charismatic anomaly in the southern part of the lake . These young mathematical function prove for the first time that Rotorua ’s mainland hydrothermal arrangement prolong into the lake ’s hidden depth .
Cornel de Ronde , a primary scientist at GNS Science , told Live Science that seeing the single-valued function was like fag out glasses for the first time when you did n’t realise you needed them . " You finally put those glasses on , and you’re able to see the fine mark , " he said .
Image showing the large magnetic anomaly in the southern part of the lake.
Related : Over half of the world ’s largest lakes and reservoir are losing urine
The maps cover 21 straight geographical mile ( 55 square kilometer ) , which is around 68 % of the lake ’s floor , according to a program line free byGNS Science . The Royal New Zealand Navy collected some of the data , mapping the lake floor ’s physical features using a multibeam echo sounder — a type of sonar . They also carried out magnetic surveys , which revealed the magnetic anomaly .
" Normally with volcanic careen , when you run a magnetometer over the top of them , you get very electropositive anomalousness , but in this case we ’re getting disconfirming unusual person , likely due to very blue magnetised susceptibilities , " de Ronde said .
Lake Rotorua sits in the crater of a dormant volcano on New Zealand’s North Island.
Volcanic rocks typically contain the highly magnetised mineral magnetite , but in Lake Rotorua , researchers conceive hydrothermal fluids have pass through the rock and transform the magnetite into pyrite , orfool ’s gold , which has almost no magnetic signal . This hydrothermal process would severely fall the magnetized signal and explicate the electronegative anomaly .
— rarefied lake forms in Death Valley
— parlous expedition to uninhabited island in South Atlantic confirms existence of domain ’s eighth lava lake
— Tsunamis up to 90 foot high-pitched smash into New Zealand every 580 years , study finds
The investigator also found other grounds of hydrothermal activeness in the same world-wide sphere as the magnetic anomaly . A warmth stream mathematical function shows high temperature , which is probably live water , go up up to the lake floor from beneath . Crater are also seeable in this same region , which de Ronde noted are likely hydrothermal volcanic eruption craters .
Despite all of this activeness , body of water temperature near the bottom of the lake are usually around a cool 57 degrees Fahrenheit ( 14 level Celsius ) , accord to de Ronde . That ’s because the lake is so gravid that there ’s enough cool water to counteract passion coming up from below , and the temperature only fluctuates by around 1.8 level F ( 1 degree C ) over a month .
" Nobody swim in the lake would notice it , but with instrumentation , we do , " de Ronde say .
