When did Taupo last erupt?
1,800 years ago
Taupo volcano last erupted over 1,800 years ago and is today filled by New Zealand’s largest lake. Lake Taupo fills the large caldera volcano. Taupo volcano first began to erupt over 300,000 years ago.
How big is the Taupo volcano?
roughly 35-km-wide
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.
Is there a super volcano in NZ?
Lake Taupō, in the centre of New Zealand’s North Island, is the caldera of a large rhyolitic supervolcano called the Taupō Volcano. This huge volcano has produced two of the world’s most violent eruptions in geologically recent times.
What happens if Taupo erupts?
“If Taupo were to erupt, we would expect to see major ground deformation and thousands of earthquakes, not hundreds,” Jolly says. White Island’s 2000 eruption followed a long period of activity and is one of “a couple” of eruptions Jolly has seen.
What does Taupo mean in English?
The name Taupo, by which the town is commonly known, is the shortened version of its full name, Taupō-nui-a-Tia. Literally translated from Māori language, Taupō-nui-a-Tia means “The great cloak of Tia”, where Tia is the name of the discoverer of the lake.
How far did Taupo Erupt?
The eruption plume reached 50km into the air, well into the stratosphere. All of New Zealand received at least 1cm of ash, with areas near the lake being buried in more than 100 metres of pyroclastic flow. This scorching hot flow spread up to 90 km from the vent and covered all local features except Ruapehu.
How was Taupo formed?
Lake Taupō is in a caldera created mainly by a supervolcanic eruption which occurred approximately 25,600 years ago. According to geological records, the volcano has erupted 29 times in the last 30,000 years. It has ejected mostly rhyolitic lava, although Mount Tauhara formed from dacitic lava.
Is Taupo extinct?
The volcano is currently considered to be dormant rather than extinct because of moderate fumarole activity and hot springs along the shores of the lake.
Is Taupo a super volcano?
Unrest at Taupo supervolcano Supervolcanoes are some 1,000 times bigger than a normal volcano. Earth’s last supereruption was Taupo, approximately 25,000 years ago. Taupo has erupted less violently at least 28 times since then, with the largest and most recent of these events occurring in 232 CE.