Dust clouds spark fears of collapse on Mt Taranaki

CAMERON BURNELL/ Taranaki Daily News

DUST UP: The smudge of white dust against Mt Taranaki raising alarm bells about a slip.

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Plumes of dust billowing from Mt Taranaki had onlookers fearing a massive chunk of the mountain had collapsed last night.

Tariki pub owner Kevin Bennett and his family first noticed the smudge of smoke-like white near East Egmont at 5.45pm.

"It looked like a river of rock, probably about a fifth or a sixth of the way up from the base, there's a heap of dust, about the same size as the skifield," Mr Bennett told the Taranaki Daily News while looking through binoculars.

"We saw the first puff about 15 minutes ago, then there was another about 10 minutes later and they just keep going."

However head of Taranaki DOC Phil Mohi thought the dust cloud was probably caused by wind, not a slip.

"The wind is howling off the western side of the mountain and can bring dust up there. People have mistaken it for smoke before," he said.

Mr Mohi hadn't heard of any slips yesterday.

GNS science on-call seismologist Brian Ferris said they had detected nothing yesterday that would have caused a landslide.

There was no hint of volcanic activity on Mt Taranaki, Mr Ferris said.

But the Bennett family were adamant there had to have been a slip to create a cloud of that size

Ami Bennett, 22, said before the shadow of the mountain came down, the dust was as visible as the snow.

"At first we thought it wasn't that big but when we compared it to the skifield, that's when we realised how big it was."

The dust was approximately half way between the skifield and the North Egmont visitor's centre, near the Maketawa River.

A team of air force personnel from Whenuapai is expected to take a look at the area today.