Ruapehu News

 The volcanic tremor at the volcano continues at low levels over the past 20 days since the last recorded elevated signals.

The Crater Lake (Te Wai ā-moe) temperature has slightly cooled off to 24 °C and continues at decreasing trend. In addition, water samples analysis from the lake confirmed a chemical interaction between magma and hydrothermal system to control the composition, level and temperature of the lake.

Therefore, the Geonet observatory lowered the Volcanic Alert Level to 1 and the Aviation Colour Code to Green as all monitoring data reflected a decreasing level at the volcano.

The GeoNet continues: "Despite the decline in volcanic unrest the potential for eruptive activity remains. Over the last 2-3 months a magmatic intrusion has occurred inside the volcano, increasing heat and gas flow into the hydrothermal system associated with the Crater Lake. Our data indicate that the intrusion has stalled or stopped moving. Whilst this means that the current unrest episode has ended, the presence of recently stalled magma in the volcano suggests that a sudden resumption of activity would be more possible than the last time Ruapehu was at Volcanic Alert Level 1."

Source: GNS Science volcano activity update 4 July 2022