By 3 News online staff
Concerned New Plymouth residents are being reassured that huge dust clouds seen billowing from Mount Taranaki are no cause for alarm.
Taranaki Civil Defence says they're natural landslides, which are more visible in dry wind.
Dave Rogers of the Department of Conservation told the Taranaki Daily News that the slides are common on the mountain.
"These are areas that are highly erosive, just by the sheer nature of the slopes and the soil makeup there,” he told the paper. “They get wind-blown, dry out immensely, and all of a sudden this wind funnels its way up through the valleys creating plumes of dust."
Mr Rogers said the dust caused by the slips can be mistaken for smoke from a bushfire.
3 News/RadioLIVE
source: newshub archive
