When it comes to powerful volcanic eruptions, it is hard to top Lake Taupō in New Zealand. What looks like a tranquil lake on the North Island is actually the remnants of massive explosions and collapses culminating in the 232 AD blast that may have been the largest eruption on Earth in the past few thousand years. For the most part, Taupō has been quiet since then, but a new bout of earthquakes and ground inflation under the lake has lead GNS Science to raise the alert status to Level 1 for the first time ever.
Let's get the elephant in the room out of the way: this new unrest does not mean that Taupō will have a massive eruption. Just like we talk about Yellowstone Caldera in Wyoming, Taupō has the ability to produce such gigantic blasts, but most of the time unrest like this leads to no eruption ...
