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Background Information

Taupō Volcano is a super-volcano system that began erupting about 300,000 years ago Wikipedia. The most recent major eruption occurred about 1,800 years ago, which widened the basin that Lake Taupō mostly fills today. Taupō Volcano is active with periods of volcanic unrest and has been for some time. However, the statistical probability of a major eruption occurring in any given year is low.

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Current Activity

According to a recent Volcanic Activity Bulletin published by GeoNet on May 30, 2023, volcanic activity at Taupō Volcano is now back to background levels GeoNet. The Volcanic Alert Level has been lowered to Level 0. Monitoring at Taupō Volcano shows that both ground deformation and earthquake activity have continued to decrease over the past few weeks. These monitoring data indicate the level of unrest has now returned to what is normally seen as the background.

This latest episode of unrest at Taupō volcano started in May 2022. The Volcanic Alert Level for Taupō volcano was raised to 1 in September 2022 in response to this activity, indicating minor unrest was occurring. This unrest has now paused. GeoNet has recorded both ground deformation signals and shallow earthquakes under the central lake area during this period.

Through early 2023 (January to April) earthquake activity has continued with ground deformation. However, both were showing declines. These have returned to typical background levels in May 2023. A combination of magma movement at depth, faults slipping, and hydrothermal fluids has likely been driving the earthquakes and ground deformation observed this last year. This activity has now paused.

Overall, over the past year, there have been just over 1800 earthquakes under Taupō volcano, accompanied by some measurable - although too small to impact local communities - ground deformation of the lake floor and around the lake.