The New York Daily News
‘Holy smoking toledos!’: Tourists capture startling footage of volcano erupting in Papua New Guinea
written by Carol Kuruvilla
Saturday September 6, 2014
Australian couple Phil and Linda McNamara made a spur of the moment decision to get on a boat to capture video of the dangerous Mount Tavurvur erupting in Papua New Guinea on Aug. 29. They weren’t expecting to be hit by the volcano’s sonic boom.
“Holy smoking toledos!”
A shocked onlooker didn’t mince words as he shot footage of a massive volcano erupting in Papua New Guinea.
The behemoth Mount Tavurvur belched out a thick tower of ash thousands of feet into the skies above the island of New Britain early Aug. 29, and Australian taxi driver Phil McNamara got a front row seat to Mother Nature’s show.
McNamara and his wife Linda were vacationing in the area when he heard that the volcano was ready to spit out its fury. The Queensland couple made a “spur of the moment” decision to get onto a hotel boat and take a closer look.
"I thought I might as well try and capture something you rarely get to see,” Phil told the Brisbane Times.
But the couple had no idea that their touring boat would be impacted by the blast. The shockwave from the eruption can be seen rippling across the earth and skies, flinging clouds out of the way before hitting the boat with a thunderous roar.
Phil admitted that he and his fellow tourists "absolutely crapped themselves” when the boom hit.
The McNamaras shared the video on Facebook and it has since received more than 30,000 shares from around the world.
The ash from the volcano reached 60,000 feet above sea level, CNN reports. Local communities had to be evacuated, the Guardian reports, while international flights were re-routed.
Mount Tavurvur, one of the most active and dangerous volcanoes in Papua New Guinea, destroyed the nearby township of Rabaul in a 1994 explosion, according to The Guardian.
No comments:
Post a Comment