Report on Rumble V (New Zealand) — June 1992
Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network, vol. 17, no. 6 (June 1992)
Managing Editor: Lindsay McClelland.
Rumble V (New Zealand) New submarine volcano identified; rising gas bubbles
Please cite this report as:
Global Volcanism Program, 1992. Report on Rumble V (New Zealand) (McClelland, L., ed.). Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network, 17:6. Smithsonian Institution. https://doi.org/10.5479/si.GVP.BGVN199206-241110
Rumble V
New Zealand
36.142°S, 178.196°E; summit elev. -400 m
All times are local (unless otherwise noted)
Three previously unknown submarine arc stratovolcanoes have been identified at the S end of the Kermadec Ridge: Rumble V (36.140°S, 178.195°E, summit 700 m below sea level); Tangaroa (36.318°S, 178.031°E, summit 1,350 m below sea level); and Clark (36.423°S, 177.845°E, summit 1,150 m below sea level) (figure 1). All three have basal diameters of 16-18 km and rise from the seafloor at ~2,300 m depth. The first evidence of the volcanoes was from GLORIA side-scan mapping of the southern Havre Trough-Kermadec Ridge region in 1988 (Wright, 1990). Later investigations, including a photographic and rock-dredge study during the 3-week Rapuhia cruise (early 1992), confirmed previous interpretations. Side-scan and photographic data show a complex terrain of lava flows and talus fans on the flanks of all three volcanoes, with the most pristine-looking morphology at Rumble V. During the 1992 cruise, gas bubbles were detected acoustically, rising from the crests of Rumble III, IV, and V. No gas bubbling was evident from Tangaroa or Clark. Bathymetric surveys indicated that the summits of the shallowest volcanoes, Rumble III and IV, were at ~140 and 450 m, respectively, below the sea surface.
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Figure 1. Sketch map of New Zealand's North Island and the southern Kermadec Ridge area, with locations of young volcanoes. Courtesy of Ian Wright. |
Reference. Wright, I.C., 1990, Bay of Plenty-Southern Havre Trough physiography, 1:400,000: New Zealand Oceanographic Institute Chart, Miscellaneous Series no. 68.
Geological Summary. Rumble V was discovered in 1992 at the southernmost end of the Rumble seamounts on the southern Kermadec Ridge, 17 km ESE of Rumble IV. Andesitic and basaltic-andesite rocks have been dredged from this volcano, which rises more than 2,000 m to nearly 400 m below the ocean surface and shows a pristine morphology. A large plume of gas bubbles was acoustically detected rising from the summit in 1992, and subsequent expeditions detected evidence of vigorous hydrothermal activity.
Information Contacts: I. Wright, New Zealand Oceanographic Institute, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Wellington.
