Report on Tongariro (New Zealand) — May 1992
Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network, vol. 17, no. 5 (May 1992)
Managing Editor: Lindsay McClelland.
Tongariro (New Zealand) Fumarole temperatures and gas chemistry unchanged from 1989; no significant deformation or seismicity
Please cite this report as:
Global Volcanism Program, 1992. Report on Tongariro (New Zealand) (McClelland, L., ed.). Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network, 17:5. Smithsonian Institution. https://doi.org/10.5479/si.GVP.BGVN199205-241080
Tongariro
New Zealand
39.157°S, 175.632°E; summit elev. 1978 m
All times are local (unless otherwise noted)
Fumarole temperatures (93.9 & 94.3°C) and preliminary gas chromatograph data collected on 7 April were unchanged since the previous fieldwork in March 1989. No significant deformation was evident. Seismicity has remained relatively low.
Geological Summary. Tongariro is a large volcanic massif, located immediately NE of Ruapehu volcano, that is composed of more than a dozen composite cones constructed over a period of 275,000 years. Vents along a NE-trending zone extending from Saddle Cone (below Ruapehu) to Te Maari crater (including vents at the present-day location of Ngauruhoe) were active during several hundred years around 10,000 years ago, producing the largest known eruptions at the Tongariro complex during the Holocene. North Crater stratovolcano is truncated by a broad, shallow crater filled by a solidified lava lake that is cut on the NW side by a small explosion crater. The youngest cone, Ngauruhoe, is also the highest peak.
Information Contacts: P. Otway, DSIR Geology & Geophysics, Wairakei.