A series of spikes in seismograph measurements at Tongariro National Park overnight were due to lightning and not volcanic activity, scientists say. Mt Tongariro was quiet overnight on Thursday, about a day and a half after the mountain's Te Maari crater spewed ash and gas up to 4km in the air in Wednesday afternoon's eruption. Read more
Beneath the waters of Lake Taupo lies one of the world's biggest volcanoes and scientists say an eruption would be one of the most life threatening events New Zealand has ever faced. They say an eruption involving New Zealand's largest lake would dwarf the trouble caused by the 1995 Ruapehu eruption and lahar flows since then. Read more
According to GNS, the Taupo volcano first began erupting about 300,000 years ago and it is a given that it will do so again one day. A repeat eruption of the size of either the Oruanui or Taupo eruptions would "devastate most of the North Island", according to GNS. Taupo is part of a belt of active volcanoes known as the Taupo Volcanic Zone that runs from Ruapehu northeast to White Island and on towards the Kermadec Islands. Read more
Lake Taupo, in the centre of New Zealands North Island is not recognised as such by most people, but it is actually the Caldera of a large rhyolitic volcano. This huge volcano has produced two of the worlds most violent eruptions in geologically recent times. The Taupo Volcano forms part of the Taupo Volcanic Zone, a region of volcanic activity that extends from Ruapehu in the South, through the Taupo and Rotorua regions, to White Island, in the Bay of Plenty. Read more