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Our biggest volcano isn’t a cone, it’s a lake, formed about 25,500 years ago in the massive Ōruanui eruption shown in this video. The Oruanui eruption of Taupō volcano spat out so much magma that the ground collapsed and left a caldera in its wake. Water filled the hole, and Lake Taupō was formed.
The volume of material erupted was 8-9 times the volume of water in Lake Taupō today. Volcanic material filled the air. Most fell on the North Island (~2m in Napier), but some landed as far away as the Chatham Islands (~18 cm). Since the Oruanui eruption there’ve been 28 smaller eruptions of Taupō volcano.
Head to Te Papa in Wellington and check out Te Taiao | Nature exhibit to watch it on their giant wall-sized screen!
Credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRWnBtoshc0
Reference landscape image courtesy of LINZ. CC BY 4.0, Rūaumoko illustration by Ben Te Aika
Read more about the Taupō caldera on the Te Papa website: https://tepapa.nz/caldera
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