Tank Farm (sometimes Tuff Crater) is the name of a volcanic explosion crater (or maar) on the North Shore of

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

, New Zealand, near the approaches to the

Auckland Harbour Bridge The Auckland Harbour Bridge is an eight-lane motorway bridge over the Waitematā Harbour in Auckland, New Zealand. It joins St Marys Bay on the Auckland city side with Northcote on the North Shore side. It is part of State Highway 1 and th ...

Geology

Part of the

Auckland volcanic field The Auckland volcanic field is an area of monogenetic volcanoes covered by much of the metropolitan area of Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, located in the North Island. The approximately 53 volcanoes in the field have produced a diverse a ...

, it was created by a series of explosive eruptions. Although its age is unknown it could be one of the older volcanoes in Auckland like its neighbours Onepoto and

Lake Pupuke Lake Pupuke (traditionally known in Māori as Pupukemoana) is a heart-shaped freshwater lake occupying a volcanic crater (or maar) between the suburbs of Takapuna and Milford on the North Shore of Auckland, New Zealand. The heart shape is a re ...

. Originally a freshwater lake, it later became a tidal

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') a ...

when the sea levels rose after the last

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gree ...

. Tank Farm is mostly in its natural state, though some parts of the

tuff ring Phreatomagmatic eruptions are volcanic eruptions resulting from interaction between magma and water. They differ from exclusively magmatic eruptions and phreatic eruptions. Unlike phreatic eruptions, the products of phreatomagmatic eruptions cont ...

were quarried and its name stems from the

petrochemical Petrochemicals (sometimes abbreviated as petchems) are the chemical products obtained from petroleum by refining. Some chemical compounds made from petroleum are also obtained from other fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, or renewable sou ...

s storage tanks located here during World War II.''Onepoto and Tank Farm'' - ''City of Fire'', insert magazine in ''

The New Zealand Herald ''The New Zealand Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, and considered a newspaper of record for New Zealand. It has the largest newspaper circulation of all newspapers ...

'', Friday 15 February 2008. Tank Farm and neighbouring Onepoto were fresh water lakes when sea levels were lower using the

Last Glacial Maximum The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), also referred to as the Late Glacial Maximum, was the most recent time during the Last Glacial Period that ice sheets were at their greatest extent. Ice sheets covered much of Northern North America, Northern Eur ...

. As sea levels rose, the waters of the

Waitematā Harbour Waitematā Harbour is the main access by sea to Auckland, New Zealand. For this reason it is often referred to as Auckland Harbour, despite the fact that it is one of two harbours adjoining the city. The harbour forms the northern and easter ...

breached the tuff rings of the craters, becoming tidal lagoons.

History

Its Maori name is Te Kopua o Matakamokamo, meaning 'the basin of Matakamokamo'. Matakamokamo is an ancestral figure in Maori oral tradition who, during a domestic argument, is said to have inadvertently cursed the goddess of fire, Mahuika. As punishment, the goddess called on the parent god Mataoho, who had the necessary powers, to send up numerous volcanic eruptions to plague the hot-tempered man and his wife Matakerepo. The two eruptions that were eventually fatal to the couple were said to be at the sites of what is now called Tank Farm and Onepoto Domain respectively. Consequently, the former was named Te Kopua o Matakamokamo, and the latter Te Kopua o Matakerepo.Bruce Hayward, "Tank Farm Volcano Geology" (2009) http://www.forestandbird.org.nz/files/file/TANK%20FARM%20VOLCANO%20GEOLOGY(2).pdf. Accessed May 2011. Also see "The Volcanoes of Auckland" (2007), by David Pegman, Manukau City Council http://mangeremountain.com/content/library/The_Volcanoes_of_Auckland.pdf. Accessed May 2011. Also see "Call for Tuff Crater to be known as Te Kopua o Matakamokamo, its historic name", ''North Shore Times Advertiser'', 13 July 2000; p. 9 The local council uses the name Tuff Crater for this volcano - a name taken from Hochstetter's (1864) map of the volcanoes of Auckland where a number of volcanoes, including Tank Farm, were each labelled "tuff crater" or "tuff craters". The name Tank Farm became popularised during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, when bulk fuel storage tanks were constructed adjacent to the crater.

References

*''Volcanoes of Auckland: The Essential guide'' - Hayward, B.W., Murdoch, G., Maitland, G.; Auckland University Press, 2011. *''Volcanoes of Auckland: A Field Guide''. Hayward, B.W.; Auckland University Press, 2019, 335 pp. .

External links

Photographs of Te Kopua o Matakamokamo
held in Auckland Libraries' heritage collections. Auckland volcanic field Maars of New Zealand Volcanoes of the Auckland Region Waitematā Harbour {{Auckland-geo-stub

Geology

History

See also

References

External links