Taupo is one of those volcanoes I do not like to write about in Volcanocafé. It is one thing to write a historical retrospect of what it has done in yon olden days, and something completely different when it is doing something interesting. The reason is simple, Taupo is one of those volcanoes that have…
There is a hole in New Zealand. It is sitting midway between Auckland and Wellington, about as far from the sea as it is possible to get in New Zealand. Even a casual look at the map already shows the big lake right in the middle of the North Island, looking misplaced and oversized within…
This post is about the Tarawera Kaharoa eruption, and shows that it happened in June 1306. But it is a long story, connecting places as far apart as Taiwan, Ecuador and the Antarctic Peninsula. Enjoy! Large volcanic eruptions throw out their ash and gas into the atmosphere and forget about the mess. They are heavy…
It was a quintessential English village, with simple houses along streets and fenced cottage gardens of precisely 100 m2 each. This is what the heart of England, the Cotswolds, looked like. Perhaps 85% of the population was local; the others were distant immigrants. The people were farmers and workers in the local flour mill. But…
Here comes the conclusion to the series, the 3 volcanoes that I considered the likeliest to produce a VEI-8 eruption. 3. Calabozos and neighbours (Chile) This volcano is located in Chile. It forms part of a little known, little studied, silicic flare-up of the Southern Andes Volcanic Zone. Steepening of the subducting Payenia Slab gave…
We continue with a list of volcanoes capable of producing a VEI-8 eruption from least to most likely and taking into account the factors that I explained in the previous post, here. Next volcano capable of a VEI-8 is… 6. Long Valley-Mono (USA) The volcanism of the western United States can give you a headache…
An eruption that ejects more than 1000 km3 of material (ash, pumice, rock…) is considered a super-eruption, a VEI-8. These represent the greatest volcanic events that have taken place during human existence. Such apocalyptic phenomena attract a lot of attention, from scientists, volcanoholics and doomsayers. The term supervolcano has become increasingly popular but also increasingly…
The Bay of Plenty is an evocative name. The Bay is sandwiched between the two northerly peninsulas of The North Island. The name includes the adjacent land region, so this is a Bay you can live in. The geyser of Rotorua is world-renowned. So are the adjacent Taupo volcanoes, although not quite as widely publicised.…
It is a wonderful, and funny place. New Zealand has more than its fair share of the world’s beauty. You want volcanoes, rivers, beaches, forests, mountains, liveable cities, it has it all. Its history is out of this world. Apart from a few bats and some dolphins, the first mammals to arrive were human. In…
It is lonely out here, 850 km east of Christchurch, New Zealand, a small archipelago unprotected from the Roaring Forties. Even the international date line carefully avoids it, bending around it to the east. Few people live here; of the eleven Chatham islands, only two are occupied: Chatham island itself, and Pit island. The bending…