Taupo Developments

 

The ongoing seismic unrest beneath the volcano, starting exactly one year ago, has paused.

The activity has returned to typical background levels during May this year as it has been showing signs of decreasing trend, including ground deformation.

The unrest and shallow earthquakes have likely been driven by a combination of several factors such as magma movement, fault slipping and/or hydrothermal system. The activity found ceased for now.

Seismic activity summary
About 1750 shallow earthquake events have been measured beneath the center of Lake Taupō since May 2022. The largest earthquake to date occurred on 30 November 2022 with a magnitude M 5.7 at about 9 km below the lake surface. 4 quakes during the period were recorded with magnitudes of 4 or more. The activity can be divided into 5 sections:

A. 1 Jan 2022 – 30 April 2022: Pre-unrest. This shows a normal level of earthquake activity
B. 1 May – 15 September 2022: Initial period of heightened earthquakes
C. 16 September – 29 November 2022: Earthquake activity is lower, but still above that before unrest started
D. 30 Nov – 31 Dec 2022: Magnitude 5.7 event and it's aftershocks
E. 1 Jan 2023 – 2 April 2023: Earthquake activity is lower, but still above that before unrest started

All known seismic unrest periods at the volcano have ended with a lowering of numbers of earthquakes and the rate of uplift by returning to normal, pre-seismic levels. None of these unrest phases have resulted in eruption.

Therefore, the alert level for the volcano is being lowered to Level 0.

Source: GeoNet New Zealand volcano activity update 31 May 2023