Taupo supervolcano needs monitoring, scientists say (earthsky.org)
Posted by Kelly Kizer Whitt and Deborah Byrd
June 22, 2021
Unrest at Taupo supervolcano
When we in the U.S. think of supervolcanoes, we’re likely to think of Yellowstone. But people in New Zealand think of Taupo. Supervolcanoes are some 1,000 times bigger than a normal volcano. Earth’s last supereruption was Taupo, approximately 25,000 years ago. Taupo has erupted less violently at least 28 times since then, with the largest and most recent of these events occurring in 232 CE. A new study published this month confirms that Taupo is currently active and potentially hazardous. The study – published June 7, 2021 – revealed that Taupo has an active reservoir of at least 60 cubic miles (250 cubic km) of magma beneath its caldera. The scientists said some 20-30% of this magma is molten.
The study followed a period of unrest around Taupo in 2019.
The caldera of Taupo volcano long ago filled with water and is now a large lake in the center of New Zealand’s North Island. A town of 25,400 people (as of June 2020) rests along a bay in the lake’s northeastern shore. The lake and the town are both also called Taupo.
The peer-reviewed journal Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems – a publication by the American Geophysical Union – published the new study on June 7.
In historical times, Taupo has undergone periods of unrest involving abundant, sometimes damaging earthquakes and ground deformation. 2019 was one of these periods of unrest. Scientists used the locations and patterns of the earthquakes and ground deformation to infer the presence of the active magma reservoir beneath the lake. They said that new magma being fed into this reservoir is what caused the triggering of earthquakes in 2019. These scientists said in their paper:
***Our findings show that Taupo needs to be carefully monitored to better understand the processes at depth and the factors that might cause similar unrest to escalate into an eruption in the future.
more: https://earthsky.org/earth/taupo-supervolcano-needs-monitoring/?utm_source=EarthSky+News
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