5.9 quake in Taupo where a supervolcano rests!

There have been three 5. quakes in NZ, the largest being this one. Natural but frightening!!! Has anyone heard any updates on damage or the status of the volcano?

Yeah exactly, so is the pole shift, solar storms/flares/winds, so is the gigantic in our magnetic field already; but although volcano's and earthquakes are natural they seem to be going off simultaneously and it seems to just resemble the initial turbulence of the pole shift.

It is impossible to forecast when the next eruption will occur at Taupo, or what size it will be. The best available information shows that there is no relationship between the size of eruption and the time break between eruptions. The next eruption might be next year, or not for hundreds of years. It might produce a small lava dome, or it might destroy the central North Island as the volcano has done in the past. All that is certain, is that Taupo will erupt again.

Some interesting facts about Taupo

Taupo is the most frequently active and productive rhyolite volcano in the world.
Taupo caldera (collapsed crater) occupies about the same area as metropolitan Auckland.

www.essencenz.com...

So from the article it seems like they don't know when it will next erupt but it might be as soon as next year

The last 26,000 years have seen about 28 major eruptions, separated in time by between 50 and 5000 years. There is no simple pattern to these eruptions that would suggest when or where the next event might occur.

sylph.gns.cri.nz...

Volcanoes are unpredictable and are not well understood. Also there have not been many rhyolite eruptions world-wide in historic times to give us clues about what to expect. Nearly all caldera eruptions are preceded by weeks to months of local earthquakes. These can be expected to increase in number and strength as the eruption approaches, and will not die away after a few days such as swarms of earthquakes have done at Taupo in the past. The recognition of these earthquakes as volcanic in origin is essential and will rely on detailed scientific monitoring and analysis. Caldera volcanoes worldwide are subject to seismic swarms-clusters of close-spaced small earthquakes.

OK, to recap on the subject of statistics: When you have a large sample size (in this case, all active volcanoes on the planet), and notice every event (ie, an eruption), then you will end up with a feeling of a lot of simultaneous occurences. Of course, none of the eruptions this year have been very large, mostly just look really quite impressive, and spectacular.

When we start getting VEI 4 or 5 eruptions happening all the time I'll admit that something is up. Small eruptions like we see now, where the words "Eruption plume extends to 5,000 ft above the volcano" or similar, do not have any real significance on a worldwide scale unless they worsen. If, in the future months we see large Mt St Helens sized eruptions occur rapidly one after the other, then by all means, get on with the doom calling. What we are seeing now looks to be normal, it's only because of other events that it looks bad, and also the fact that news travels extremely quickly these days that we even know that anything is happening.


As to Taupo; well, a 5.9 could be an issue. However, it is worth noting it's depth of 94.5 miles. I would guess that it is probably too low to be volcanic - it would probably be more likely to be a tectonic one instead, because that whole area is a subduction zone, after all, and such things are to be expected every now and then. That isn't to say it can't cause an eruption, but as it is I think it unlikely for this event. Probably a good place to watch, though.

The activity in this area looks crazy in the past few months in NZ....

Before September there we on average 20-40 earthquakes per month but then in September it jumped to 365 "With the 7.1", October 151 and slowly clamming down from there but still way above average...

lists.geonet.org.nz...

Anyone else know more about this area?

reply to post by apex

Of course, none of the eruptions this year have been very large, mostly just look really quite impressive, and spectacular.

Which makes me wonder why we are having airlines shutting down certain routes..
I don't remember that happening much in the past..
Jetstar just stopped all flights to Bali again..

Originally posted by FermiFlux
Thanks for the info, I wasn't aware of a supervolcano in Taupo until now. Turns out Lake Taupo itself is a product of the Oruanui eruption that occured 26,500 years ago (which was the last eruption of the supervolcano)

Slightly off topic but is it just me or is that "26,500 years ago" phrase used more often than not concerning prophecies and date setting for impending disasters? Meh, maybe its just me

Well, 26,000 or thereabouts would be the period of the precession of the equinox - actually it's a little less IIRC but you do see that figure given as roughly-speaking. It is often referred to in astrology, so would crop up in predictions and prophecies.

peace
J

Click on the NZ earthquake link line at the bottom of my post for more info.

20-30 per month are only the ones reported to Geonet by the public on the Internet, there are on average of 20-60 recorded earthquakes per day across the country and surrounding offshore.

Reply to ALL

no need to get alarmed, the epi centre was 41km north of the Taupo Crater (Lake) in the Maroa Field which is way older, 230,000 years
www.volcano.si.edu...

There is good cause to say it was Volcanic in nature though, as on the same day there were also 2 micro earthquakes at the Crater Lake of Mt. Ruapehu ( sheild Volcano) 88km to the south and another minor quake at Rotorua caldera ( another crater filled with water like Taupo) to the north.

Volcanism is caused by Tectonics anyway. I suppose if it was right on the Plate Boundry you could say it was only Tectonic. This was 250km away from the Plate Boundry.

The whole of the North Island of New Zealand is the result of Tectonic uplift and Volcanism anyway, there is nothing to suggest activity has suddenly stopped for any reason. Last big eruption was Mt. Ruapehu in 1995-6.

If that 5.9 had been right in the middle of Lake Taupo I guess a raised eyebrow might be in order

Perhaps unrelated but we had new quakes in Gisborne, maybe a hundred kilometers to the east of Taupo.

These new earthquakes made it to the headlines, just like the 5.9 quake.

nz.news.yahoo.com...

Four earthquakes, three of them measuring more than four on the Richter scale, rattled the Gisborne area in just over an hour today.

Two 4.2 magnitude earthquakes struck at 12.39pm and 12.53pm, both centred 30km south of Gisborne at a depth of 25km, GNS Science reported.

At 1.01pm a 3.3 magnitude earthquake struck in the same place, followed another earthquake measuring 4.1 at a depth of 30km at 2pm.