Lake Taup, a serene body of water in the center of New Zealand’The island’s North Island is actually located in a prehistoric caldera, or large volcanic crater. This crater was formed after Earth’s most recent super eruption, the Oruanui eruption, shook the region 25,400 years ago. In recent decades, scientists have studied the lake and the regions around it, only to come to the horrifying conclusion that the volcano may still be active.
The study’s lead author, Dr Finnigan Illsley-Kemp, postdoctoral fellow in Volcano Geodynamics, School of Geography, Environment, and Earth Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, said: “Lake Taup hides one of the world’s most active caldera volcanoes , which last erupted 1800 years ago.
“Movements of magma and tectonic faults below the surface often cause the ground surface above the volcano to rise and fall.
“In 1979 we started a new surveying technique that uses the lake surface to detect small changes, taking four measurements per year since then.
“In this article, we summarize these 42 years of data to show that the volcano in the lake, near the Horomatangi Reefs, caused 160mm rise, while the tectonic faults north of the lake caused 140mm subsidence.
“This shows that Taupō is an active and dynamic volcano that is closely linked to the surrounding tectonics.”
A caldera is formed when a supervolcano releases more than 1,000 cubic kilometers of magma and other material in a single eruption.
In such a case, the magma vents now eroded tend to collapse, sinking the Earth’s surface and permanently turning the landscape into a caldera or “cooking pot” in Spanish.
In the past 12,000 years, Taupō Volcano has been active 25 times, with the authors of the new study describing the most recent eruption in AD 232 as “one of Earth’s most explosive eruptions in historic times.”
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Since then, the volcano has continued to cause panic, as its rumble in 1922 triggered devastating earthquakes and massive subsidence, a phenomenon in which the ground sinks due to underground activity.
Speaking to the New Zealand Herald last year, Dr. Illsley-Kemp: “However, Taupō will most likely erupt at some point in the next few thousand years — so it’s important that we monitor and understand these periods of turmoil so we can quickly identify signs that may indicate an impending eruption.”
In the study, the researchers found that during periods of geological turmoil, which were characterized by swarms of earthquakes, the northeastern end of the lake would slowly rise, while the southern end of the lake would be pushed in.
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The rising north end of the lake is actually closest to the volcano’s center and adjacent fault lines, according to researchers
The researchers noted that while the 16cm rise was not catastrophic, it is certainly enough to damage some buildings or pipes as the earthquakes push magma closer to the surface.