Taupo is collection of caldera’s formed from successive eruptions spanning millennia. The fact they are all covered up by the same body of water obscures this fact. The place where you will swim IM NZ however, right by the township, is in fact the site of the most recent eruption. Geologists say there is little doubt that this eruption was the largest in recorded human history (it was recorded by Chinese scholars).
This also means there are multitudes of winderness hotsprings all over the Taupo area - grab hold of a local when you are down there and demand they tell you where they are
Check out nearby Mount Tarawera (near my hometown) when you are in New Zealand for the site of NZ’s most recent (1886) eruption. Cheers, Paul
Taupo is collection of caldera’s formed from successive eruptions spanning millennia. The fact they are all covered up by the same body of water obscures this fact. The place where you will swim IM NZ however, right by the township, is in fact the site of the most recent eruption. Geologists say there is little doubt that this eruption was the largest in recorded human history (it was recorded by Chinese scholars).
This also means there are multitudes of winderness hotsprings all over the Taupo area - grab hold of a local when you are down there and demand they tell you where they are
Check out nearby Mount Tarawera (near my hometown) when you are in New Zealand for the site of NZ’s most recent (1886) eruption. Cheers, Paul
Larger than Krakatoa? If you have read the book, “Krakatoa, the day the earth exploded”, by Simon Winchester, this pretty well documents that Volcano as the largest explosion in recorded human history. Such little factoids as the explosions being heard over 3000 miles away, the pressure waves traveling around the earth seven times, etc.
If this was a bigger eruption it must be quite a story, although it doesn’t sound as well documented, maybe occurring much earlier. He does mention another couple of very large older eruptions in his book and maybe it is acknowledged by him as being larger, I don’t remember. The unique thing about Krakatoa is it occurred at a time when the whole earth could know about it, through a world-wide telegraph network, while it was occurring. Very interesting book by the way if you like science stuff. I have liked all of Winchester’s books. He wrote others including one on the Oxford English Dictionary and “the map that changed the world” - another geology book.
Karaktoa was a ‘relatively’ small event, nowhere in the same leagues as Taupo or Yellowstone. Krakatoa was a phreato-magmatic event, a fancy term to say that the collapse of the volcano allowed sudden contact of water and magma. The ensuing explosion was quite large, as were the tsunamis created by the event.
However, the amount of material ejected was in the order of 20 cubic km.
Compare that to Toba (estimated 3000 cubic km) or Taupo (1000 cubic km) and it is a relatively small eruption. Krakatoa, is however, still large compared to Mount St-Helens which ejected less than 2 cubic km in its largest eruption in May 1980.
I didn’t think Krakatoa was the largest eruption ever or that it even approached the size of Yellowstone. I am surprised to hear that the Taupo eruption is of similar size to Yellowstone and other supermassive volcanos, yet occurred in recorded history.
Some of us (those of us with big knowledge gaps) learn something everyday.
I am surprised to hear that the Taupo eruption is of similar size to Yellowstone and other supermassive volcanos, yet occurred in recorded history.
Depends what you mean by recorded history.
The very large Taupo eruption occured 26000 years ago. This was the 1000 cubic km eruption that formed lake Taupo. There was another large eruption 1800 years ago that ejected about 100 cubic km of material. All other eruptions were small.
AFAIK, Taupo volcano most recent eruption is the one 1800 years ago.
thanks for that Cathy. The race was today and was…just appalling, really. The weather turned it into a suffer fest for a lot of us, I think. You know how you think about nice thoughts on the run? Today, all I could think about was being warm, it was so cold out there.
Swim was very cold, but ok, not too much wind and flat water. The ride out to Reporoa was fast - took me about 1:22 for the 45 ks (I should have smelled a rat right there!), but I left my race on the return journey - 1:45, into howling west sou westerly, with stinging horizontal rain…it seemed to take for ever to get from 70/90 ks! Shit I worked so hard on that section that I had SFA left for the run. So I struggled throught the half marathon, being passed by many people - I just had no legs.
Anyway, freezing in Taupo this weekend, (all over the country, actually)…I just hope things are a bit more tropical for Tauranga in three weeks!
Oh…one more thing. They’re drawing a P3SL at the prizegiving tonight…one chance in about 500…pleasepleaseplease…
Oh…one more thing. They’re drawing a P3SL at the prizegiving tonight…one chance in about 500…pleasepleaseplease…<<
Good luck on that!!! Please give us a report on the party.
The coldest swim I’ve ever done was at this race in 2002. Sorry to hear you had crap weather. Hopefully you’ll get real summer soon. And I really hope that lake warms up by March 5th!!!
Didn’t win the P3. Left the party pretty early - I was still frozen from the race! It was won by Terrenzo Bozzone, one of our top juniors, and (sorry, forget the woman’s winner). Hooksie gave the winners their weight in beer, which amounted to about 140kgs. Terrenzo didn’t make it so his beer got distributed and drunk by others. Theme was bad hair and there were some outrageous dos out there. A really relaxed, fun atmosphere…
was atrocious weather huh? i was freezing my ass off just watching. terenzo totally dominated the race, leading from start to finish. kieran doe closed on him fast at the end though, posting a 1.12 run!!! and apparently he had gone the long way on the first lap!
The most dangerous volcanos don’t actually look like volcanoes, so when they go off, they really go off. If you live in Auckland, like I do, you are in fact living on an active volcano: There are 60 different eruption vents or cones across the city, and the region has been active for 60,000 years, so is still quite young. Those hills that dot the city are quite useful if you like hill repeats and like a nice view. The last one to go off was Rangitoto, the huge island at the entrance to the harbour. It went off about 600 years ago: Maori were here at the time, but it was before European settlement. The city founders saw a nice harbour and some nice hills, so set up New Zealand’s largest city there.
If you do the math you can work out that 60 vents in 60 years equals one every thousand years, so it should be about 400 years before something happens, but…the eruptions tend to come in clusters, and the last one was 5,000 years ago, and…they are getting bigger and bigger: Rangitoto contains as much material as all the others combined.
They follow a familiar pattern: the first thing is a phreato-magmatic explosion: basically the lava rising out of the ground meets the ground water and there is a huge steam explosion. This flattens everything within a 3km radius. Then, depending on the amount of magma, there will be ash eruptions, lava fountains creating scoria cones and sometimes lava flows. There are some pretty spectacular holes in ground such as Orakei Basin (in the heart of the most expensive suburb) Panmure Basin, Lake Pupuke, Tank Farm and Onepoto, that make for useful water skiing venues and sports grounds, as well as some 600’ high vantage points and 8km long lava flows, all with a city built on top of them.
The Civil Defense guys are alert to the danger and have set up a ring of seismic monitoring stations. They reckon they will be able to give four days notice of an eruption. I am just going now to check my water supplies and my supply of batteries.
Sounds just like my race, except I took 3:26 on the bike and a bit longer than you on the run. I hit Reporoa in 1:30 so felt pretty smug, until I turned atound. The last 20k on the bike were a killer. Just as well I do this for enjoyment, as I got my moneys worth. I felt seriously cold after the race, but the motel had a seriously hot spa pool, so I recovered nicely.
honestly, that last 45ks was the HARDEST I have ever ridden. At times keeping the speedo in double digits took a lot of effort. And then when it came time to run…I was mothered.
Oh well. What do you reckon we get a heatwave at Tauranga??
Flat all the way…I’ll see what Jon Ackland has in my plan for me. Honestly I don’t feel too bad today at all, and good to try out the IM course. I think these half IM’s are good training… Pleased to know that others found it tough as well.
Sure it warms the water up. I didn’t do the Taupo half this past weekend but did it last year.
The water was bitterly cold but the start at “hot water beach” made it more bearable for a while at least. Wriggling ones feet in to the sand and feeling the warm water bubbling up was excellent and got me well warmed up for a PB swim.
To another respondant, yes, bigger than Yellowstone! When Taupo last erupted (not that long ago, maybe a few thousand years) it was thought to be the loudest noise ever produced on earth!
I am not positive but I think that Yellowstone was actually a Metor strike not a volcano - recent studies show chains of quartz that can only happen with a high velocity impact, not a volcanic eruption. I love the Discovery Channel.
here is a sweet shot of a metor strike, unbelievable!
