Pureora (known more usually as Mount Pureora to avoid confusion with the township, locality and Forest Park) is an extinct high

basaltic Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90% of a ...

andesite Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predomi ...

stratovolcano A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a conical volcano built up by many layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with a summit crater and per ...

located in the Pureora Forest Park between

Lake Taupō Lake Taupō (also spelled Taupo; mi, Taupō-nui-a-Tia or ) is a large crater lake in New Zealand's North Island, located in the caldera of the Taupō Volcano. The lake is the namesake of the town of Taupō, which sits on a bay in the lake's nor ...

and Te Kuiti on the North Island Volcanic Plateau in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. The area of the mountain is in a scenic reserve that is "recognised as one of the finest rain forests in the world".

Geography

The mountain is covered in native forest and quite near the geographical centre of the

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

which is slightly to its west. It is located on the boundary of the Waikato and

Manawatū-Whanganui Manawatū-Whanganui (; spelled Manawatu-Wanganui prior to 2019) is a region in the lower half of the North Island of New Zealand, whose main population centres are the cities of Palmerston North and Whanganui. It is administered by the Manawat ...

regions.

Geology

Mount Pureora has a prominence above the surrounding countryside of about and a diameter of . It is to the south west of a smaller pleioscene

Mount Titiraupenga Titiraupenga (also known as Mount Titiraupenga) is an extinct high basaltic andesite stratovolcano on whose southern slopes is located the geographical centre of the North Island of New Zealand. It is in the Pureora Forest Park between Lake T ...

, and both are located to the south of the ancient Mangakino caldera on a basement of Waipapa composite terrane. The basaltic andesite lavas are made up of

plagioclase Plagioclase is a series of tectosilicate (framework silicate) minerals within the feldspar group. Rather than referring to a particular mineral with a specific chemical composition, plagioclase is a continuous solid solution series, more prope ...

, clinopyroxene and

orthopyroxene The pyroxenes (commonly abbreviated to ''Px'') are a group of important rock-forming inosilicate minerals found in many igneous and metamorphic rocks. Pyroxenes have the general formula , where X represents calcium (Ca), sodium (Na), iron (Fe II) ...

, with rare olivine and hornblende phenocrysts with an age of 1.60 ± 0.10 Ma.

Access

The mountain top is accessed by several trails and has bike access. These include a portion of the Te Araroa trail which incorporates the Timber trail and a branch of this called the Toi Toi track accessible off State Highway 30 near the township of Pureora. The Mount Pureora track is accessible also from back roads off State Highway 32, which lies to the west of Lake Taupo.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pureora Volcanoes of Waikato Mountains of Waikato Mountains of Manawatū-Whanganui Volcanoes of Manawatū-Whanganui Landforms of Manawatū-Whanganui Landforms of Waikato

Geography

Geology

Access

See also

References