Stratigraphy, chronology, styles and dynamics of late Quaternary eruptions from Taupo volcano, New Zealand

Abstract

Taupo volcano is the southerly of two dormant caldera volcanoes in the rhyolite-dominated central portion of the Taupo Volcanic Zone in the North Island of New Zealand. Taupo has an average magma output rate of 0.2 m3 s-1 over the past 65 000 years, and is one of the most frequently active and productive rhyolite volcanoes known. The structure of the modern ‘inverse’ volcano was formed largely by caldera collapse associated with the voluminous 22 600 14C years BP Oruanui eruption, and has been little modified since except for collapse following the 1850 14C years BP eruption. The products of 28 eruptions (labelled T, f2, A, ..., Z), all of which post-date the Oruanui eruption, are defined and described here. Twenty-seven of these eruptions are represented by pyroclastic deposits (of which three were accompanied by a mappable lava extrusion), and one eruption (Z) solely by evidence for a lava extrusion. The deposits of seven eruptions (B, C, E, S, V, X and Y) largely correspond to previously defined tephra formations (Karapiti, Poronui, Opepe, Waimihia, Whakaipo, Mapara and Taupo, respectively). The previously defined Motutere and Hinemaiaia Tephras are reinterpreted to represent the products of 12 eruptions (G to R), while the remaining eight deposits and one eruption are newly recognized. Eruption T occurred at ca. 17200 14C or 20500 calibrated years BP and eruption Z about 1740 calibrated years BP. Eruption volumes vary by more than three orders of magnitude between 0.01 and more than 44 km3, and repose periods by more than two orders of magnitude from ca. 20 to 6000 years. The eruption deposits reflect great variations in parameters such as volume, the dispersal characteristics of the fall deposits, the presence or absence of intraeruptive time breaks, the formation of pyroclastic flows, the degree of magmawater interaction, the vesiculation state of the magma on fragmentation and the relative proportions of juvenile obsidian versus foreign lithologies in the lithic fractions. All but seven fall deposits are plinian in dispersal; two (Y1 and probably W) are sub-plinian, one (Y5) has been termed ‘ultraplinian’, while 4/ and A are too poorly preserved for their dispersal to be assessed. The lengths of repose periods in the post-Oruanui sequence range are not randomly distributed but show self-similar properties (fractal dimensionality); repose intervals (r, in years) of not more than 350 years follow n = 53.5r-0'21, and those of not less than 350 years follow n = 2096r-0-83, where n is the number of eruptions. The shorter repose periods may reflect triggering processes, such as regional extension, affecting magma bodies during their viable lifetimes, while longer repose intervals (i.e. not less than 350 years) may reflect an episodicity of major rifting events or the production of magma bodies below the volcano. Bulk volumes (v, in km3) of the eruption products also show self-similar properties (fractal dimensionality), with n = 6.17v-0.46. However, there are then apparently random relationships between eruption volumes and the preceding or succeeding repose period such that prediction of the time and size of the next eruption is impossible. The post-Oruanui activity at Taupo represents ‘noise’ superimposed on the more uniform, longer term activity in the central Taupo Volcanic Zone, where large (greater than 100 km3) eruptions, such as the Oruanui, occur at more evenly spaced intervals of one per 40-60000 years.