Tongariro in New Zealand Sees Sharp Increase in Earthquakes

Ngauruhoe (background) and lava flows from Tongariro (foreground), taken from the Tongariro Crossing. Image by Erik Klemetti, taken January 2009. The North Island of New Zealand is littered with volcanoes, stretching from White Island in the north to Ruapehu in the south and as far west as Taranaki. It is also home to giant caldera, such as Taupo, that produced one of the few known ultraplinian eruptions - the 186 A.D. eruption that may have had a plume that towered over 50 km above the land. However, over the past 20 years, things have been pretty quiet in New Zealand, with only eruptions from Ruapehu in 1995-96, but these volcanoes of the North Island are still active, so GNS Science keeps a close watch. It appears that one volcanic system is rumbling some this summer. Tongariro, just to the north of Ruapehu, has seen an increase in volcanic earthquakes over ...