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Taupō Volcano

Taupo

Caldera · New Zealand · 760m

Lake Taupo fills a roughly 35-km-wide caldera that is the site of the most prolific rhyolitic volcano of the Taupo volcanic zone. The caldera was formed during two major explosive eruptions, the Oruanui eruption, roughly 22,600 years ago, and the Taupo eruption, about 1,800 years ago. The latter was one of the world's largest Holocene eruptions. Additional Plinian eruptions during the Holocene have produced widespread airfall pumice deposits.
Lake Taupo fills a roughly 35-km-wide caldera that is the site of the most prolific rhyolitic volcano of the Taupo volcanic zone. The caldera was formed during two major explosive eruptions, the Oruanui eruption, roughly 22,600 years ago, and the Taupo eruption, about 1,800 years ago. The latter was one of the world's largest Holocene eruptions. Additional Plinian eruptions during the Holocene have produced widespread airfall pumice deposits. · Photo: Photo by Richard Waitt, 1986 (U.S. Geological Survey). · Wikimedia Commons
Type
Caldera
Country
New Zealand
Region
Tonga-Kermadec Volcanic Regions / Taupo Volcanic Arc
Elevation
760m
Coordinates
-38.781, 175.893
Last eruption
260
Tectonic setting
Subduction zone / Continental crust (> 25 km)
Landform
Caldera
Major rock type
Rhyolite
Geological summary

Taupo, the most active rhyolitic volcano of the Taupo volcanic zone, is a large, roughly 35-km-wide caldera with poorly defined margins. It is a type example of an "inverse volcano" that slopes inward towards the most recent vent location. The caldera, now filled by Lake Taupo, largely formed as a result of the voluminous eruption of the Oruanui Tephra about 22,600 years before present (BP). This was the largest known eruption at Taupo, producing about 1,170 km3 of tephra. This eruption was preceded during the late Pleistocene by the eruption of a large number of rhyolitic lava domes north of Lake Taupo. Large explosive eruptions have occurred frequently during the Holocene from many vents within Lake Taupo and near its margins. The most recent major eruption took place about 1,800 years BP from at least three vents along a NE-SW-trending fissure centered on the Horomotangi Reefs. This extremely violent eruption was New Zealand's largest during the Holocene and produced the thin but widespread phreatoplinian Taupo Ignimbrite, which covered 20,000 km2 of North Island.

From Wikipedia

Lake Taupō, in the centre of New Zealand's North Island, fills the caldera of the Taupō Volcano, a large rhyolitic supervolcano. This huge volcano has produced two of the world's most powerful eruptions in geologically recent times.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA · Read full article →

Eruption history

Summary (VEI over time)
Click a bar to see individual eruptions
9460 BCE~9136 BCE · 3 eruptions · max VEI 58164 BCE~7840 BCE · 1 eruptions · max VEI 55248 BCE~4924 BCE · 1 eruptions · max VEI 34924 BCE~4600 BCE · 1 eruptions · max VEI 44276 BCE~3952 BCE · 2 eruptions · max VEI 43628 BCE~3304 BCE · 1 eruptions · max VEI 33304 BCE~2980 BCE · 3 eruptions · max VEI 42980 BCE~2656 BCE · 3 eruptions · max VEI 42656 BCE~2332 BCE · 2 eruptions · max VEI 41684 BCE~1360 BCE · 1 eruptions · max VEI 61360 BCE~1036 BCE · 2 eruptions · max VEI 41036 BCE~712 BCE · 2 eruptions · max VEI 4388 BCE~64 BCE · 1 eruptions · max VEI 464 BCE~260 · 2 eruptions · max VEI 69460 BCE7192 BCE4600 BCE2332 BCE64 BCE

Detailed timeline

  1. 260VEI 0Geological estimate
    260 – Ongoing
    East Lake Taupo (Horomatangi Reefs)
  2. 233 (±13 yrs)VEI 6Geological estimate
    233-03-15 – Ongoing
    Horomatangi Reefs area
  3. 200 BCEVEI 4Geological estimate
    BCE 200 – Ongoing
    4 km NW of Te Kohaiakahu Point
  4. 800 BCEVEI 2Geological estimate
    BCE 800 – Ongoing
    Ouaha Hills
  5. 1010 BCE (±200 yrs)VEI 4Geological estimate
    BCE 1010 – Ongoing
    4 km NW of Te Kohaiakahu Point
  6. 1050 BCEVEI 4Geological estimate
    BCE 1050 – Ongoing
    5 km NE of Motutaiko Island
  7. 1250 BCEVEI 3Geological estimate
    BCE 1250 – Ongoing
    4 km W of Te Kohaiakahu Point
  8. 1460 BCE (±40 yrs)VEI 6Geological estimate
    BCE 1460 – Ongoing
    Horomatangi Reefs?
  9. 2500 BCEVEI 3Geological estimate
    BCE 2500 – Ongoing
    3 km SW of Motutaiko Island
  10. 2600 BCEVEI 4Geological estimate
    BCE 2600 – Ongoing
    3 km NW of Te Kohaiakahu Point
  11. 2800 BCEVEI 3Geological estimate
    BCE 2800 – Ongoing
  12. 2850 BCEVEI 3Geological estimate
    BCE 2850 – Ongoing
    2 km S of Te Tuhi Point
  13. 2900 BCEVEI 4Geological estimate
    BCE 2900 – Ongoing
    5 km NW of Te Kohaiakahu Point
  14. 3070 BCEVEI 4Geological estimate
    BCE 3070 – Ongoing
    5 km NW of Te Kohaiakahu Point
  15. 3120 BCEVEI 3Geological estimate
    BCE 3120 – Ongoing
    2 km W of Te Kohaiakahu Point
  16. 3170 BCE (±200 yrs)VEI 4Geological estimate
    BCE 3170 – Ongoing
    4 km NW of Te Kohaiakahu Point
  17. 3420 BCEVEI 3Geological estimate
    BCE 3420 – Ongoing
  18. 4000 BCEVEI 3Geological estimate
    BCE 4000 – Ongoing
  19. 4100 BCEVEI 4Geological estimate
    BCE 4100 – Ongoing
    4 km WNW of Kohaiakahu Point
  20. 4700 BCEVEI 4Geological estimate
    BCE 4700 – Ongoing
    East-central Lake Taupo
  21. 5100 BCEVEI 3Geological estimate
    BCE 5100 – Ongoing
    SE Lake Taupo (Motutaiko Island) (Unit F)
  22. 8130 BCE (±200 yrs)VEI 5Geological estimate
    BCE 8130 – Ongoing
    Central, E-central L. Taupo (Opepe)
  23. 9210 BCEVEI 4Geological estimate
    BCE 9210 – Ongoing
    Acacia Bay lava dome
  24. 9240 BCE (±75 yrs)VEI 5Geological estimate
    BCE 9240 – Ongoing
    4 km W of Te Kohaiakahu Point
  25. 9460 BCE (±200 yrs)VEI 5Geological estimate
    BCE 9460 – Ongoing
    East-central Lake Taupo (Karapiti)

External links

⚠ For reference only. Not for emergency response.