Okataina (Tarawera) Volcano
Updated: Apr 19, 2024 13:55 GMT -
Lava domes 1111 m / 3,645 ft
New Zealand, -38.12°S / 176.5°E
Current status: normal or dormant (1 out of 5)
New Zealand, -38.12°S / 176.5°E
Current status: normal or dormant (1 out of 5)
Last update: 20 Dec 2021 (Smithsonian / USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report)
Mount Tarawera, located 24 km SE of Rotorua, is the main vent of the Okataina volcanic complex. Tarawera produced one of New Zealand's largest historic eruptions in 1886, when a violent explosive basaltic eruption occurred that killed an estimated 120 people. The fissures that opened up run for about 17 kilometres northeast-southwest.
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Okataina (Tarawera) volcano eruptions: 1981, 1886 (Tarawera eruption)
Latest nearby earthquakes
| Time | Mag. / Depth | Distance / Location | |||
| Apr 12, 09:44 pm (Auckland) | 3.0 129 km | 10.3 km (6.4 mi) to the NW |  New Zealand | Info | |
| Sunday, April 7, 2024 GMT (1 quake) | |||||
| Apr 7, 11:19 pm (Auckland) | 3.1 136 km | 18 km (10.9 mi) to the NW | New Zealand | Info | |
| Wednesday, April 17, 2024 GMT (1 quake) | |||||
| Apr 17, 10:30 pm (Auckland) | 2.4 110 km | 26 km (16 mi) to the W | 4.1 km west of Rotorua, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand | Info | |
| Thursday, April 11, 2024 GMT (1 quake) | |||||
| Apr 11, 05:00 pm (Auckland) | 2.4 75 km | 13 km (7.8 mi) to the SW | New Zealand | Info | |
| Friday, April 19, 2024 GMT (1 quake) | |||||
| Apr 19, 02:08 pm (Auckland) | 2.3 156 km | 26 km (16 mi) to the W | 4.8 km northwest of Rotorua, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand | Info | |
| Friday, April 12, 2024 GMT (1 quake) | |||||
| Apr 12, 06:50 pm (Auckland) | 2.3 113 km | 24 km (15 mi) to the NW | New Zealand | Info | |
Background
The massive, dominantly rhyolitic Okataina Volcanic Centre is surrounded by extensive ignimbrite and pyroclastic sheets produced during multiple caldera-forming eruptions. Numerous lava domes and craters erupted from two subparallel NE-SW-trending vent lineations form the Haroharo and Tarawera volcanic complexes.Lava domes of the Haroharo complex, at the northern end of the Okataina Volcanic Centre, occupy part of the 16 x 26 km Pleistocene Haroharo caldera, which formed incrementally between 300,000 and 50,000 years before present (BP). The oldest exposed rocks on the caldera floor are about 22,000 years old. The Tarawera complex at the southern end of Okataina consists of 11 rhyolitic lava domes and associated lava flows. The oldest domes were formed as late as about 15,000 years BP, and the youngest were formed in the Kaharoa eruption about 800 years BP. The NE-SW Tarawera vent lineation extends from the two dacitic cones of Maungaongaonga and Mangakakaramea on the SW to Mount Edgecumbe on the NE. Construction of the Haroharo and Tarawera complexes impounded lakes Rotoiti, Totoehu, Okataina, and Tarawera against the outer margins of the Okataina ring structure. A major hydrothermal area is located at Waimangu; the world-renowned Pink and White Terrace siliceous sinter deposits were destroyed during the major basaltic explosive eruption of 1886.
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Smithsonian / GVP volcano information
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