'Volcano-geekery': Taupō into final of worldwide Volcano Cup

Thursday, 1 March 2018

Taupō has made it into the finals of the Volcano Cup, a worldwide exercise in 'volcano-geekery'.

Voting was under way on Thursday to find the other finalist, between Etna in Italy and Krakatau in Indonesia.

The event has been organised by New Zealand volcanologist Dr Janine Krippner, who is now at Concord University in West Virginia, in the US. Voting is done on her Twitter account @janinekrippner

Krippner, who gained a public profile during eruptions on Agung volcano in Indonesia in 2017, said she was running the Volcano Cup because there was a worldwide need for increased awareness of volcanic activity, hazards, risk and preparedness.

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'This #VolcanoCup is about increasing volcanic activity & hazards awareness. Millions of people live on or near volcanoes, & many people travel to (or fly over) volcanoes. Knowing the hazards can save lives,' she tweeted.

Taupō was chosen to represent New Zealand from a list that included Ruapehu, Tongariro and the Auckland Volcanic Field.

It went into group B of the event where it took 50 per cent of 534 votes in a four-way contest against Erta Ale in Ethiopia, Masaya in Nicaragua, and Arenal in Costa Rica.

In its quarter-final, Taupō picked up 65 per cent of 1013 votes against Mt St Helens of the US. Then it went on to win its semi-final with 61 per cent of 1359 votes against Teide in the Canary Islands.

Up against competitors with more recent claims to spectacular eruptions, Taupō's backers are basing much of their campaign on the massive size of the New Zealand entrants historic convulsions.

'While the other contenders to be New Zealand's Volcano Cup representative – Ruapehu, Tongariro and the Auckland Volcanic Field – are more recently active, some would say more pretty, and have some interesting features like lahars and crater lakes, Taupō won out because she is big and bad,' GNS Science volcanologist Brad Scott said.

A classic, grizzled, grey-bearded natural scientist, Scott brings a sense of dry humour to his GeoNet blogs about the contest, describing it as 'volcano-geekery', and talking about 'international volcano nerds', as he tries to martial support for Taupō.

'Taupō volcano started life around 200,000 years ago and has had two significant caldera forming eruptions, both holding their own in global volcanology,' he said.

'The Oruanui eruption - which produced one of, if not the largest eruption in the world in the last 26,000 years - covered the central North Island in about 500-700 cubic kilometres of superhot gassy magma, laid down as an unwelded ignimbrite,' Scott said.

'The hole under the ground that was left after all this magma spewed out collapsed, forming a caldera, which got filled up with water - and the first Lake Taupō was formed.

'The most recent eruption was the Taupō Pumice eruption about 1800 years ago, when about 45 cu km were deposited in the central North Island as valley fill ignimbrite and air fall pumice. Another caldera was formed and the modern Lake Taupō fills part of it. The effects of this eruption were recorded in China and Italy as unusual sunsets.'

Taupō continued to show signs of volcanic unrest, including small earthquakes, movement of the ground up and down, and geothermal field changes. In the past 140 years there had been 17 episodes of volcanic unrest.

Taupō had a severe earthquake in August 1895, with magnitude estimated at between 6 and 7.5. According to GNS Science hazard and risk management researcher Sally Potter there were hundreds of landslides, almost all the chimneys in Taupō collapsed, and aftershocks went on for six weeks.

Someone has set up a Taupō Caldera Twitter account, using the hashtag #GoBigOrGoHome, and there's been some sledging. The Taupō account called Yellowstone Volcano an 'old has been' and told it to 'go home and herd your bison'.

Mt St Helens is a 'US pimple that falls over and can't even erupt straight'.