Taupō Volcanic Zone

The Taupō Volcanic Zone is a northeast-trending belt of active volcanoes, calderas, and geothermal systems in New Zealand’s central North Island. It formed above the subducting Pacific Plate and includes some of Earth’s most productive rhyolitic volcanoes.

Hikurangi subduction zone: The plate boundary east of New Zealand where the Pacific Plate descends beneath the Australian Plate. Its subducting Pacific Plate supplies water and magma-generating conditions beneath the zone.
Taupō Volcano: A large volcanic center beneath and around Lake Taupō in New Zealand’s central North Island. Its enormous eruptions and continuing unrest exemplify the zone’s explosive rhyolitic volcanism.
Taupō Rift: An actively extending crustal region in central North Island, New Zealand, associated with the Taupō Volcanic Zone. Rifting stretches the crust beneath the zone and influences where magma reaches the surface.
Volcanic hazard: A threat to people or infrastructure arising from volcanic activity, including ashfall, lava, and lahars. The zone’s active centers can produce hazards across populated parts of central North Island.
Back-arc basin: A region of stretched and thinned crust formed behind a volcanic arc above a subduction zone. The zone lies within the extensional back-arc setting that helps magma rise through the crust.
Okataina Volcanic Centre: A complex volcanic center in the eastern Taupō Volcanic Zone, including several lava domes and calderas. Its repeated explosive eruptions and lava-dome growth show the zone’s varied eruption styles.
Pacific Plate: A major tectonic plate that underlies much of the Pacific Ocean and moves relative to surrounding plates. Its descent beneath New Zealand is the deep tectonic driver of the zone’s volcanism.
Volcanic ash: Fragments of volcanic rock and glass smaller than two millimeters, erupted into the atmosphere. Large explosive eruptions in the zone can spread ash far beyond their source volcanoes.
Rhyolite: A silica-rich volcanic rock that commonly forms from viscous, gas-rich magma. Rhyolitic magma drives many of the zone’s largest explosive eruptions.
Whakaari / White Island: An active andesitic volcano on an island in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. It marks the zone’s northern end and contrasts with its dominant rhyolitic centers.

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