STRATIGRAPHY, CHRONOLOGY, STYLES AND DYNAMICS OF LATE QUATERNARY ERUPTIONS FROM TAUPO VOLCANO, NEW-ZEALAND

Taupo volcano is the southerly of two dormant caldera volcanoes in the rhyolite-dominated central portion of the Taupo Volcanic Zone in the North Island of New Zealand. Taupo has an average magma output rate of 0.2 m3 s-1 over the past 65 000 years, and is one of the most frequently active and productive rhyolite volcanoes known. The structure of the modern "inverse' volcano was formed largely by caldera collapse associated with the voluminous 22 600 14C years BP Oruanui eruption, and has been little modified since except for collapse following the 1850 14C years BP eruption. The products of 28 eruptions all of which post-date the Oruanui eruption, are defined and described here. The post-Oruanui activity at Taupo represents "noise' superimposed on the more uniform, longer term activity in the central Taupo Volcanic Zone, where large (greater than 100 km3) eruptions, such as the Oruanui, occur at more evenly spaced intervals of one per 40-60 000 years. -from Author