Key facts
- Elevation
- 1,111 m (3,645 ft)
- Rock age
- 21,900 years
- Mountain type
- Lava dome with fissure vent
- Volcanic zone
- Taupō Volcanic Zone
- Last eruption
- May 1981 (Waimangu), June 1951 (Rotomahana), June to August 1886 (Tarawera)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- mountain
- Country
- New Zealand
- Located in
- Bay of Plenty Region
- Elevation
- 1111
- Image
- Lake Tarawera.jpg
Show 4 more facts
- Commons category
- Mount Tarawera
- volcano observatory
- GNS Science
- located in/on physical feature
- North Island
- native label
- Mount Tarawera
via Wikidata · CC0
~9 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Mount Tarawera is a volcano on the North Island of New Zealand within the older but volcanically productive Ōkataina Caldera. Located 24 kilometres southeast of Rotorua, it consists of a series of rhyolitic lava domes that were fissured down the middle by an explosive basaltic eruption in 1886. While the 1886 eruption was basaltic, study has shown there was only a small basalt component to the previous recent rhyolitic predominant eruptions. This eruption was one of New Zealand's largest historical eruptions, and killed an estimated 120 people. The fissures run for about 17 kilometres (11 mi) northeast–southwest.
The volcano's component domes include Ruawahia Dome (the highest at 1,111 metres), Tarawera Dome and Wahanga Dome. It is surrounded by several lakes, most of which were created or drastically altered by the 1886 eruption. These include Lakes Tarawera, Rotomahana, Rerewhakaaitu, Ōkataina, Ōkareka, Tikitapu / Blue and Rotokākahi / Green. The Tarawera River runs northeastwards across the northern flank of the mountain from Lake Tarawera.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Mount Tarawera” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.