New Zealand, land of volcanoes

New Zealand volcanoes of the ring of fire

Updated June 01, 2013

New Zealand's volcanic soils, is located on the "Ring of Fire" of the Pacific, is an alignment of terrestrial volcanoes and underwater on the oceanic trenches.
The volcanoes bordering the Pacific Ocean on the majority of its circumference, or about 40,000 miles.
This area is called "Ring of Fire".
New Zealand is a tectonic zone of the Earth's crust, it is not surprising to find dozens of volcanoes, geothermal areas and lakes that fill the calderascaldeiraPortuguese, meaning "cauldron" ) is a circular depression, a collapse at the top of some large volcanoes. The caldera is usually surrounded by high cliffs hundreds of meters high. Calderas can reach sizes of tens of kilometers in diameter, such as Lake Toba on Sumatra island (100 km × 30 km). This is called supervolcanoes. Large caldera filled with water over time and form lakes like the Toba, Crater Lake, United States or Askja in Rift is Icelandic. .
The North Island or Ile smoking is the most volcanic, this is where we will find the main volcanoes.
Taranaki mountain located in the south-west of the North Island, Mt Tongariro and Ruapehu stratovolcano located in the center of the North Island, the Ngauruhoe, in the Central Plateau of the North Island, Mt Tarawera, in the Okataina volcanic Complex, Rangitoto island in the Hauraki Gulf near Auckland, etc...
Volcanoes have many different forms, but in general they are conical mountains ending in a crater or caldera.
This is the case of volcanoes in New Zealand.
The main city built in the middle of Auckland volcanoes, is only 8 km from Rangitoto.
The capital Wellington, south of the island north on Cook Strait, is the most southerly capital and most isolated in the world.
The earthquake of 1855 was the most intense earthquake ever measured in New Zealand, with an estimated magnitude of ≈8 on the Richter scale.
Entire area of New Zealand, located on the Pacific Ring of Fire at the junction of two tectonic plates, has high seismic activity, many people frequently shaking awake. On 10 June 1986, the town of Wairoa was covered over 3 meters of ash, mud, clay and stone, in the violent eruption of Mount Tarawera.

Volcanoes	Altitude	Last eruption

Monowai	-100 m	2008
Ruapehu	22797 m	2007
Raoul	516 m	2006
Whakaari	321 m	2001
Rumble III	-140 m	1986
Ngauruhoe	2291 m	1977
Okataina	1111 m	1973
Tongariro	1968 m	1926
Tarawera	1131 m	1886
Taranaki	2518 m	1755
Healy	-1150 m	1360
Auckland	260 m	1350
Waiotapu	592 m	1180
Rangitoto	260 m	600
Taupo	760 m	181
Maroa	232 m	180
Kaikohe-Bay	388 m	≈400
Putauaki	867 m	≈−300
Tuhua	338 m	≈−4300
Macauley	238 m	≈−10000
Manukau	474 m	≈−16000
Rotorua	757 m	≈−100000
Tauhara	1087 m	≈−100000

Table: List of volcanoes in New Zealand.

Ring of Fire of the Pacific, line of volcanoes, ocean trenches

Image: Volcanoes are distributed along tectonic zones of the earth's crust. The most spectacular example is the line of volcanoes that runs through much of the Pacific Ocean, called the "Ring of Fire". Volcanic eruptions give rise to popular belief mingling terror, superstition and legend fantastic. Living in the Ring of Fire, the Māori people of New Zealand are impregnated with legends concerning their volcanoes.

NB: The sailors called the latitudes between the 40th and 50th parallel of the southern hemisphere, the "Roaring Forties", because of strong winds that circulate from west to east.
Gray volcanoes eruptions explosive emit pasty lava and ash in the form of pyroclastic flows or pyroclastic flows and volcanic plumes. The word "volcano" comes from Vulcano, Aeolian Islands one named after Vulcan, the Roman god of fire. Vulcan master reigned in the bowels burning volcanoes.

Ruapehu volcano

Volcanic activity in the Tongariro National Park ago began about 2 million years ago and continues today.
The volcanic activity of Mt Ruapehu eruption is intense and can occur at any time. This active volcano gray New Zealand is located in the national park, in the center of the North Island.
From time to time the volcano stirs, it rejects gas and water warms crater.
On 25 September 2007, the volcano ejected during the eruption, rocks more than two meters in diameter.
Mount Ruapehu, the highest mountain in the North Island, rises to 2797 meters above sea level, the summit crater filled with water is one of the busiest in the world. Large spectacular eruptions took place in 1995 and 1996, they covered with ash snowy flanks of the mountain and the entire surrounding area.
This is why scientists are closely monitoring its activity and maintain a constant high alert on Ruapehu as the Tongariro and White Island.
On Mount Ruapehu, above 1600 meters, the volcanic soil combines with snow and glaciers on the island alone. The walls of the summit caldera are permanently snow, making Crater Lake one of the most beautiful landscape of Tongariro National Park.

The mountain has the shape of a circular cone with steep slopes and numerous valleys incised outwash. The steep slopes of Mount Ruapehu are conducive to the formation of many waterfalls such as those Waitonga of forty meters. Despite sufficient rainfall ≈1200 mm/year, the climate is very windy, low humidity and sandy and gravelly soils have produced in the volcanic area of Taupo, a desert environment, a mixture of moraines, scree limestone and sparse vegetation , mosses, lichens and shrubs scattered.

NB: A stratovolcano is a volcanic mountain that is formed by the accumulation over the eruptions of lava and ash levels. The stratovolcano is an explosive volcanism volcano, which is characterized by very steep slopes, and the presence of a dome at the top, made of lava very viscous and filled with gas. Etna, Sicily, Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, and Merapi, on the island of Java in Indonesia, the volcano Ngauruhoe in New Zealand are examples of stratovolcanoes.

View live images via webcam volcanoes of New Zealand

Image: In the foreground, Crater Lake, Crater Volcano Ruapehu, and Mount Ngauruhoe in the background. Mount Ruapehu is an active stratovolcano at the southern end of the Taupo Volcanic Zone. Ruapehu is the largest active volcano in New Zealand and also the highest mountain in the North Island (2797m). The recent spectacular eruptions took place in 1995 and 1996.

Ngauruhoe volcano

Ngauruhoe

is a young stratovolcano located in the Tongariro National Park, the first national park in New Zealand. It is classified on the World Heritage List of UNESCO.
Mount Ngauruhoe is an active stratovolcano located in New Zealand's Central Plateau of the North Island. Ngauruhoe is built entirely of layers of lava and tephra The tephra are all materials (solids and liquids, driven by gas) emitted by volcanoes, except lava, they come from different types of explosive eruptions., in reality it is a secondary cone of Tongariro.
The cone rises to a height of 2291 meters, is the highest peak in the Massif Tongariro, Ngauruhoe although is generally considered a separate mountain geologically. This is also the youngest and largest of the dozen large cones of Tongariro volcanic massif.
The eruption of Mount Ngauruhoe mouth is formed there is only 2500 years, while the mass is built over the last 300 000 years. This volcano erupted frequently between gray emitting pyroclastic flows and lahars A lahar is a mudslide mud of volcanic origin. Formed of water, ash and tephra, it occurs most often on the slopes of "gray volcanoes." The lahar Nevado Del Ruiz has engulfed part of the town of Armero (Colombia) in the night of 13 to 14 November 1985, killing in their sleep, nearly 20,000 of the 29,000 inhabitants of the city. It was a nightmare scenario for pyroclastic flows from the crater prevailed glaciers melted snow and four enormous lahars streaming down the sides of the mountain at 60 km/h. Lahars down in the beds of the six rivers of the volcano and covered the town of Armero. making it the most active volcano in New Zealand.
Its summit is a double crater collapse, the Red Crater shallow contains a smaller crater filled with solidified lava. The inside of the mouth is a volcanic boulders of andesite, an igneous rock volcanic gray, which is found mainly in the volcanism of the Pacific Ring of Fire. Its last eruption dated 4 July 1977, it was of low magnitude. The New Zealand Geological Survey reported having observed an ash column of 900 meters above the summit of Ngauruhoe.

NB: A stratovolcano is a volcanic mountain that is formed by the accumulation over the eruptions of lava and ash levels. The stratovolcano is an explosive volcanism volcano, which is characterized by very steep slopes, and the presence of a dome at the top, made of lava very viscous and filled with gas. Etna, Sicily, Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, and Merapi, on the island of Java in Indonesia, the volcano Ngauruhoe in New Zealand are examples of stratovolcanoes.

View live images via webcam volcanoes of New Zealand

Ngauruhoe volcano, New Zealand North Island

Image: In the background the volcano Ngauruhoe in New Zealand located in the North Island. It culminates at 2291 meters above sea level, it is part of the Tongariro volcanic complex in which there are a dozen volcanic cones, the highest volcano of Tongariro. Mount Ngauruhoe was used as shooting locations for Mount Doom in the film trilogy The Lord of the Rings Peter Jackson.

Taranaki volcano

The volcano Taranaki (Egmont) with its 2518 m is the second highest mountain in the north of the island and the largest stratovolcano in New Zealand.
It is located at the southwestern tip of the island from the north, near the town of New Plymouth.
This is a beautiful conical stratovolcano regular as Mount Etna in Sicily, the mountain Taranaki is formed by the superposition of repeated lava flows and pyroclastic deposits (ash, slag blocks).
This young volcano emerged from the waters, date 70 000 years ago, its avalanches of ash, runny pyroclastiques Volcanic eruptions are characterized by gassing and the issuance of silicate materials almost always more or less fluid. These may take the form of lava, they can be separated as a result of the expansion of gases, giving wide range of products that are grouped under the general term of pyroclastic rocks. and limestone boulders flowing down to the sea. We can not give a specific age in the last eruption since the volcano is too young to use radiocarbon dating. There is some uneasiness among volcanologists, seismometers and GPS receivers continuously monitor the perimeter of the volcano to measure any expansion or inclination of the volcano that would be associated with incipient collapse.

The current cone is old ≈ 10 000 years and has four lava domes on its lower slopes north and south.

NB: A stratovolcano is a volcanic mountain that is formed by the accumulation over the eruptions of lava and ash levels. The stratovolcano is an explosive volcanism volcano, which is characterized by very steep slopes, and the presence of a dome at the top, made of lava very viscous and filled with gas. Etna, Sicily, Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, and Merapi, on the island of Java in Indonesia, the volcano Ngauruhoe in New Zealand are examples of stratovolcanoes.

View live images via webcam volcanoes of New Zealand

Image: This young volcano emerged from the waters, 70 000 years ago, its avalanches of ash, runny pyrocastiques and limestone boulders have gone to the sea.