Lake Taupo

 

The elevated seismic activity continues.

Earthquakes had been more frequent beneath Lake Taupō (Taupō-nui-a-Tia) throughout the past week and have increased in numbers to 40-50 quakes on average from origin 30 events/week since May. 650 quakes have been registered at less than 30 km depth so far.

In the morning of 10 September, the strongest earthquake with magnitude M 4.2 occurred at the volcano this year felt by 1242 people.

The distribution of earthquakes has formed into two clusters (see attached image) in the central part of the lake. The smaller, western cluster is located around Karangahape Cliffs and the larger, eastern cluster is centered north-east of Horomatangi Reef.

Another image depicts a number of earthquakes since 2000 including both M 3.6 quakes on 17 May and 11 July.

In august, GPS instruments detected a ground deformation around the lake showing a horizontal uplift by 12 mm.

GeoNet New Zealand continues: Taupō Volcanic Centre is part of the Taupō Volcanic Zone, a tectonically very active region with many known faults and active volcanism. Activity in this region is often related to a mix of regional deformation processes and the magmatic system under the volcanoes. While the observations beneath Lake Taupō to date represent an increase to the normal background activity, they do not stand out with respect to previous periods of unrest in 2008-2009 and 2019 (see Figure 2). We believe that the 2022 earthquakes and ground deformation are similar to those of 2008-2009 and 2019, which has helped to inform our view that Volcanic Alert Level 0 is currently appropriate for the Taupō Volcanic Centre.

The Volcanic Alert Level remains at 0.

Source: GeoNet New Zealand volcano activity update 14 September 2022