Mount Tauhara is a dormant

lava dome In volcanology, a lava dome is a circular mound-shaped protrusion resulting from the slow extrusion of viscous lava from a volcano. Dome-building eruptions are common, particularly in convergent plate boundary settings. Around 6% of eruptions on ...

volcano 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 ...

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 ...

, reaching above sea level. It is situated in the area of caldera rim overlap of the Whakamaru Caldera and

Taupō Volcano Lake Taupō, in the centre of New Zealand's North Island, is the caldera of the Taupō Volcano, a large rhyolitic supervolcano. This huge volcano has produced two of the world's most violent eruptions in geologically recent times. ImageSize ...

towards the centre of the

Taupō Volcanic Zone The Taupō Volcanic Zone (TVZ) is a volcanic area in the North Island of New Zealand that has been active for the past two million years and is still highly active. Mount Ruapehu marks its south-western end and the zone runs north-eastward thro ...

, which stretches from

Whakaari / White Island Whakaari / White Island (, mi, Te Puia Whakaari, lit. "the dramatic volcano"), also known as White Island or Whakaari, is an active andesite stratovolcano situated from the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand, in the Bay of Plent ...

in the north to

Mount Ruapehu Mount Ruapehu (; ) is an active stratovolcano at the southern end of the Taupō Volcanic Zone and North Island volcanic plateau in New Zealand. It is northeast of Ohakune and southwest of the southern shore of Lake Taupō, within the Tongari ...

in the south. It is east of the town of

Taupō Taupō (), sometimes written Taupo, is a town on the north-eastern shore of Lake Taupō, New Zealand's largest lake, in the central North Island. It is the largest urban area of the Taupō District, and the second-largest urban area in the Wai ...

, next to the northeastern shore of

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 ...

. Formed about 65,000 years ago, Mount Tauhara was not a violently explosive vent, instead slowly oozing a viscous dacitic lava. It is the largest mass of

dacite Dacite () is a volcanic rock formed by rapid solidification of lava that is high in silica and low in alkali metal oxides. It has a fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic texture and is intermediate in composition between andesite and rhyolite. ...

within the Taupō volcano, whose material is 98%

rhyolitic Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained (aphanitic) in texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals (phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained groundmass. The mineral ...

. Little evidence of its volcanic past remains today; the peak is covered in dense native bush. There is a steep walking track to the top of Mount Tauhara, starting at Mountain Road. On a clear day, the summit offers excellent views over the

Volcanic Plateau A volcanic plateau is a plateau produced by volcanic activity. There are two main types: lava plateaus and pyroclastic plateaus. Lava plateau Lava plateaus are formed by highly fluid basaltic lava during numerous successive eruptions throu ...

, encompassing the entirety of

in the southwest. The hike is relatively strenuous and takes about an hour and a half each way. The track is not well groomed; being slightly overgrown in some places. However, there is a pristine spring near the top perfect for drinking and the view at the summit is spectacular. This is the Māori legend about Mt Tauhara: :The warrior mountains of

Taranaki Taranaki is a region in the west of New Zealand's North Island. It is named after its main geographical feature, the stratovolcano of Mount Taranaki, also known as Mount Egmont. The main centre is the city of New Plymouth. The New Plymouth Dist ...

, Pūtauaki,

Tongariro Mount Tongariro (; ) is a compound volcano in the Taupō Volcanic Zone of the North Island of New Zealand. It is located to the southwest of Lake Taupō, and is the northernmost of the three active volcanoes that dominate the landscape of th ...

and Tauhara were deeply in love with Pīhanga the mountain that stands above

Tūrangi Tūrangi is a small town on the west bank of the Tongariro River, 50 kilometres south-west of Taupō on the North Island Volcanic Plateau of New Zealand. It was built to accommodate the workers associated with the Tongariro hydro-electric pow ...

at the southern end of Lake Taupō. A battle erupted to win Pīhanga's favour and the victor was Tongariro. At their defeat, the other mountains decided to leave Tongariro's domain, travelling as far away as they could in the course of one night. Taranaki fled west towards the setting sun, and Pūtauaki and Tauhara fled north towards the sunrise. Pūtauaki moved fast and is now located near Whakatane and is also known as Mt Edgecumbe. But Tauhara was sad and with a heavy heart he traveled reluctantly. When overtaken by dawn he had only reached the north eastern shore of Lake Taupō. Here he stands to this day looking mournfully across the lake towards his lost love, Pīhanga. :Tauhara is the point to which Ngātoroirangi, the high priest of

Te Arawa Te Arawa is a confederation of Māori iwi and hapu (tribes and sub-tribes) of New Zealand who trace their ancestry to the Arawa migration canoe (''waka'').Tūwharetoa, climbed when he first came to the region seeking lands for his followers. "Tauhara" is

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

for "alone, or isolated".Reed, A.W. (1975). "Place names of New Zealand". A.H. & A.W. Reed; Wellington, Sydney, London. {{maplink, frame=yes , frame-align=left , text=Map centered on Mount Tauhara that shows approximate selected surface volcanic deposits with

in purple, and

rhyolite Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained (aphanitic) in texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals (phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained groundmass. The mineral ...

in violet.

Rhyolitic Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained (aphanitic) in texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals (phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained groundmass. The mineral ...

ignimbrite Ignimbrite is a type of volcanic rock, consisting of hardened tuff. Ignimbrites form from the deposits of pyroclastic flows, which are a hot suspension of particles and gases flowing rapidly from a volcano, driven by being denser than the surrou ...

surface deposits are various shades of violet from eruptions of the

. Clicking on the map enlarges it, and enables panning and mouseover of volcanic deposits name/wikilink and ages before present for wider volcanic context. The key to the shading of other volcanics that are shown (active in last million years odd) with panning is

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, 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 planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

- brown, monogenic basalts - dark brown, undifferentiated basalts of the Tangihua Complex in Northland Allochthon - light brown, arc basalts - deep orange brown, arc ring basalts -orange brown,

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 ...

- red , basaltic andesite`- light red, and plutonic - gray. White shading has been used for postulated calderas (usually subsurface now). , raw={{Wikipedia:Map data/Northern North Island Volcanics , frame-width=250 , frame-height=250 , frame-lat=-38.694444 , frame-long=176.162778 , icon=no , zoom=11 File:Mount_Tauhara-2549.jpg File:Mount Tauhara from Lake Taupo.jpg

References

External links

Te Ara Encyclopaedia of New Zealand websiteInstitute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences website
Tauhara, Mount Taupō District Tauhara Landforms of Waikato Tauhara, Mount

See also

References

External links