Champagne Pool
Interesting facts
- The orange deposits round the rim are rich not only in arsenic and antimony but also in gold, silver, mercury and thallium.
- The pool's water is replaced roughly every 34 days, the estimated residence time of its 50,000 cubic metres of fluid.
- The bacterium Venenivibrio stagnispumantis, first isolated here, has a Latin name meaning roughly 'the poison vibrio from the bubbling pool'.
- That microbe lives on the 'knallgas' reaction, combining hydrogen and oxygen into water, and grows best at about 70 °C.
- Its DNA has a G+C content of only 29.3 percent, the lowest reported for any species of its order, the Aquificales.
- Waiotapu, where the pool lies, sits at the southern end of the Okataina Volcanic Centre in the Taupō Volcanic Zone.
- Before European settlement the area was the homeland of the Ngāti Whaoa people, descendants of those who arrived on the Arawa canoe.
Why it is worth it
Champagne Pool is a hot spring in the Waiotapu geothermal field on New Zealand's North Island, and it is one of the most painted-looking natural objects on Earth. A near-circular basin about 65 metres across holds water of a milky, glassy green, veiled in steam; around its lip runs a broad ledge of vivid orange, and beyond that a pale grey-white sinter apron spreads out over the ground. Fine bubbles of carbon dioxide rise constantly through the water and break at the surface, which is where the pool got its name.
For all its calm, the pool is young and violent in origin. It was blown out by a hydrothermal eruption about 900 years ago, and the crater it fills reaches roughly 62 metres at its deepest, holding some 50,000 cubic metres of water. Down in the system the geothermal fluid is thought to be around 260 °C; at the surface the pool sits at about 73 to 75 °C, with a mildly acidic pH held steady by the stream of carbon dioxide. Other gases escape in smaller amounts, among them nitrogen, methane, hydrogen and hydrogen sulphide, which gives the air of the whole valley its smell.
The colours are chemistry made visible. The orange rim is built of arsenic and antimony sulphides, orpiment and stibnite, that settle out as the hot water cools at the edge, while the silica carried up from depth forms the grey terraces around. The pool is also a laboratory for life at the limit: microbiologists have isolated new species of bacteria and an archaeon from it, among them one named Venenivibrio stagnispumantis, that thrives in water rich in arsenic and antimony.
Waiotapu, whose Māori name is usually translated as "sacred waters", is a geothermal area of about 18 square kilometres that has been a protected scenic reserve since 1931. Champagne Pool lies within the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland, run since 2012 by a business owned by the Te Arawa people; walking tracks there also lead past the Artist's Palette, the Devil's Bath and boiling mud.
Getting there
Waiotapu lies about 27 km south of Rotorua and about 50 km north-east of Taupō. The nearest airport is Rotorua Regional Airport (ROT), about 28 km away. The pool is reached on foot along the park's walking tracks.
Plan your visit
We have no confirmed visit data yet. Once it is confirmed, this block also carries the date it was checked.
Nearby places
- Pōhutu Geyser 23.9 km · geyser
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From the encyclopaedia
Champagne Pool is a prominent geothermal feature within the Waiotapu geothermal area in the North Island of New Zealand. The terrestrial hot spring is located about 30 km (20 mi) southeast of Rotorua and about 50 km (30 mi) northeast of Taupō. The name Champagne Pool is derived from the abundant efflux of carbon dioxide (CO2), similar to a glass of bubbling champagne. The hot spring was formed 900 years ago by a hydrothermal eruption, which makes it in geological terms a relatively young system. Its crater is about 65 m (213 ft) in diameter with a maximum depth around 62 m (203 ft) and is filled with an estimated volume of 50,000 m3 (1,800,000 ft3) of geothermal fluid.
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