Where Has All the Sinter Gone?

From the Pink and White Terraces, the Greatest Tourist Attraction of the Southern Hemisphere

Authors

  • Alfred R. Bunn Retired

Abstract

Keywords: Pink and White Terraces, Eighth Wonder of the World, Tarawera eruption, Siliceous sinter, Lake Rotomahana.

Debate continues over the silica sinter Pink and White Terraces, the greatest tourist attraction of the southern hemisphere. The 1886 Tarawera eruption may or may not have destroyed them by burial or eruption.  This research compiles evidence of surviving Terrace sinter. The volume is tiny. The largest surviving collection was located during this research. Surviving post-eruption samples are even more rare and noKeyne are proven to be from a Terrace. This would be the case if the White Terrace survived the eruption and lies buried in ash, as recent research concludes. An Australasian database was developed including photography. A forensic approach was taken to environmental conditions affecting visibility. The eruption ejected ~ 0.5 km³ ash. Terrace and other sinter occupied only ~0.0003 km3 –0.0004 km3 of this. Finding sinter has a .low probability of only ~0.06%–0.08%. This helps explain the small amount, if it existed. Some samples were unverified or lost.  The negative evidence  is more consistent with the Terraces being buried than the vagaries of sample collection and conservation.

Author Biography

  • Alfred R. Bunn, Retired

    Alfred R. Bunn is a polymath who graduated from the University of NSW and Macquarie University. He is an econometrician with an interest in time series analysis (having served to director level in several multinationals), as well as a diagnostic radiographer and a health economist. He spent 2014–2025 in pro bono, interdisciplinary research at the Rotomahana Basin in New Zealand. He is the most published researcher working in the field of relocating the lost Pink and White Terraces, the New Zealand Eighth Wonder of the World. Before 2014, he was engaged in automotive engineering research, publishing “Motorcycle Crankcase Ventilation”.

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Published

2025-06-18

How to Cite

Bunn, A. R. (2025). Where Has All the Sinter Gone? From the Pink and White Terraces, the Greatest Tourist Attraction of the Southern Hemisphere. Australasian Journal of Victorian Studies, 29(1), 31-59. https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/AJVS/article/view/21135