Mount Taranaki: Difference between revisions

Mount Taranaki is situated in the sedimentary [[Taranaki Basin]] and is part of the Taranaki Volcanic Lineament which has had a {{convert|3|cm/yr|abbr=on}} north to south migration over the last 1.75 million years.<ref name="Cronin2021"/> A [[Wadati–Benioff zone]] exists at about {{convert|200|km|abbr=on}} depth and the volcano's [[magma]] has the geochemical features of an [[Volcanic arc|arc volcano]].<ref name=Shane2023>{{cite journal| title=Priming and eruption of andesite magmas at Taranaki volcano recorded in plagioclase phenocrysts| journal=Bulletin of Volcanology| year=2023| volume=85| number=47 | doi=10.1007/s00445-023-01661-0 | first1=Phil | last1=Shane |first2=Fidel| last2=Costa| first3=Shane| last3=Cronin| first4=Claudine| last4=Stirling| first5=Malcolm| last5=Reid| page=47| doi-access=free| bibcode=2023BVol...85...47S| hdl=2292/66169| hdl-access=free}}</ref>{{rp|2}} Under the volcano itself there is high heat flow with only about {{convert|10|km|abbr=on}} crustal thickness although this rapidly normalises for continental crust to {{convert|35|km|abbr=on}} east of the volcano and {{convert|25|km|abbr=on}} to the west.<ref name=Shane2023/>{{rp|2-32–3}}

Taranaki is geologically young, having commenced activity approximately 135,000&nbsp;years ago. The most recent volcanic activity was the production of a lava dome in the crater and its collapse down the side of the mountain in the 1850s or 1860s.<ref name="pukeariki">{{cite web|url=http://www.pukeariki.com/Research/TaranakiStories/TaranakiStory/id/599/title/volcanic-taranaki.aspx|title=Volcanic Taranaki|publisher=[[Puke Ariki]]|access-date=18 March 2010|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130201005636/http://www.pukeariki.com/Research/TaranakiStories/TaranakiStory/id/599/title/volcanic-taranaki.aspx|archive-date=1 February 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vn=241030| title=Taranaki (Egmont)| work=Global Volcanism Program| publisher=Smithsonian Institution| access-date=3 April 2016| archive-date=10 May 2017| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170510111320/http://volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vn=241030| url-status=live}}</ref> Between 1755 and 1800, an eruption sent a [[pyroclastic flow]] down the mountain's northeast flanks,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/5763785/Mt-Taranaki-volcano-history-revised |title=Mt Taranaki volcano history revised |author=Leighton Keith |newspaper=Taranaki Daily News |date=11 October 2011 |access-date=11 October 2011 |archive-date=11 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111011081340/http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/5763785/Mt-Taranaki-volcano-history-revised |url-status=live }}</ref> and a moderate ash eruption occurred about 1755, of the size of [[Mount Ruapehu|Ruapehu]]'s activity in 1995/1996. The last major eruption occurred around 1655. Recent research has shown that over the last 9,000&nbsp;years minor eruptions have occurred roughly every 90&nbsp;years on average, with major eruptions every 500&nbsp;years.<ref name="Price1999">{{Cite journal|last1 = Price|first1 = R. C.|last2 = Stewart|first2 = R. B.|last3 = Woodhead|first3 = J. D.|last4 = Smith|first4 = I. E. M.|title = Petrogenesis of High-K Arc Magmas: Evidence from Egmont Volcano, North Island, New Zealand|journal = Journal of Petrology|volume = 40|issue = 1|year = 1999|pages = 167–197|url = https://academic.oup.com/petrology/article/40/1/167/1572845|doi = 10.1093/petroj/40.1.167|doi-access = free|access-date = 11 June 2022|archive-date = 11 June 2022|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220611124837/https://academic.oup.com/petrology/article/40/1/167/1572845|url-status = live}}</ref> Some of these eruptions may have occurred with very brief warning, of only days or less.<ref name=Shane2023/>{{rp|1, 14-1814–18}}