Yellowstone supervolcano: Expert on ‘danger’ of Caldera in 2015

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Lake Taupō, a serene water body located at the centre of New Zealand’s north island actually sits within a prehistoric caldera, or a large volcanic crater. This crater was formed after the Earth’s most recent supereruption, the Oruanui eruption, rocked the region 25,400 years ago. Over the past few decades, scientists have been studying the lake and the regions around it, only to reach the worrying conclusion that the volcano may still be active.

The study’s lead author, Dr Finnigan Illsley-Kemp, from the Victoria University of Wellington, said: “Lake Taupō conceals one of the world’s most active caldera volcanoes, which last erupted 1,800 years ago.

“Movements of magma and tectonic faults beneath the surface frequently cause the ground surface above the volcano to uplift and subside.

“In 1979 we began a novel surveying technique which uses the lake surface to detect small changes, with four surveys made every year since.

“In this paper, we summarise this 42 years of data to show that within the lake, near Horomatangi Reefs, the volcano has caused 160 mm of uplift, whereas north of the lake the tectonic faults have caused 140 mm of subsidence.

“This shows that Taupō is an active and dynamic volcano which is intimately connected with the surrounding tectonics.”

A caldera is formed when a supervolcano releases over 1,000 cubic kilometres of magma and other material in a single eruption.

In such an event, the magma vents that have now been hollowed out tend to cave in, causing the Earth’s surface to sink, permanently transforming the landscape into a caldera or “boiling pot” in Spanish.

Over the past 12,000 years, the Taupō volcano has been active 25 times, with the authors of the new study describing the most recent eruption in 232AD as “one of the Earth’s most explosive eruptions in historic times”.

Since then, the volcano has continued to cause panic as the rumblings have caused destructive earthquakes and a massive ground subsidence in 1922, which is a phenomenon where the ground sinks due to subsurface activity.

Speaking to New Zealand Herald last year, Dr Illsley-Kemp warned: “However, Taupō will most likely erupt at some stage over the next few thousand years – and so it’s important that we monitor and understand these unrest periods so that we can quickly identify any signs which might indicate a forthcoming eruption.”

In the study, the researchers discovered that during periods of geological unrest, which were characterised by swarms of earthquakes, the north-eastern end of the lake would slowly rise, while the southern end of the lake would be depressed.

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The rising northern end of the lake is actually closest to the centre of the volcano’s and the adjoining fault lines, as researchers

The researchers noted that while the 16 cm of uplift was not catastrophic, is it certainly enough to damage some buildings or pipes as the earthquakes push magma closer to the surface.

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