The Oruanui eruption of New Zealand's Taupō Volcano (also known as the Kawakawa eruption or Kawakawa/Oruanui event) was the world's most recent supereruption, and largest phreatomagmatic eruption characterised to date.

Geography

At the time of the eruption sea level was much lower than at present and the Taupō Volcano had been for over 100,000 years mainly located under a larger lake than the present Lake Taupō called Lake Huka. Lake Huka was destroyed in the eruption and other features of the local geography were changed significantly as outlined below.

Eruption

With a Volcanic Explosivity Index of 8, it is one of the largest eruptions ever to occur in New Zealand and the most recent supereruption. It occurred 25675±90 years BP in the Late Pleistocene and generated approximately 430 km (100 cu mi) of pyroclastic fall deposits, 320 km (77 cu mi) of pyroclastic density current (PDC) deposits (mostly ignimbrite) and 420 km (100 cu mi) of primary intracaldera material, equivalent to 530 km (130 cu mi) of rhyolitic magma, totalling 1,170 km (280 cu mi) of total deposits. As such it is the largest phreatomagmatic eruption characterised to date. The eruption is divided into 10 different phases on the basis of nine mappable fall units and a tenth, poorly preserved but volumetrically dominant fall unit.

Modern-day Lake Taupō, 616 km (238 sq mi) in area and 186 m (610 ft) deep, partly fills the caldera generated during this eruption. A 140 km (54 sq mi) structural collapse is concealed beneath Lake Taupō, while the lake outline at least partly reflects volcano-tectonic collapse. Early eruption phases saw shifting vent positions; development of the caldera to its maximum extent (indicated by lithic lag breccias) occurred during phase 10.

Unusual features

The Oruanui eruption shows many unusual features: its episodic nature, a wide range of magma-water interaction, and complex interplay of pyroclastic fall and flow deposits. The erupted magma was very uniform in composition and this composition has not been seen since but had been seen before the eruption. Detailed compositional analysis has revealed the early phases of the eruption had a small amount of magma from outside the Taupō Volcano and are most consistent with a tectonic trigger. The eruption occurred through a lake system which was either the southern section of Lake Huka, recently separated by pre-eruption upwarping shortly before the eruption itself or some have suggested Lake Taupō had separated with a higher level than the remaining Lake Huka about a thousand years earlier, due solely to eruptive activity of the Poihipi volcano adjoining Mount Tauhara whose magma chamber is under Wairakei and that had erupted at Trig 9471 and the Rubbish Tip Domes about 27,000 years ago, filling that portion of Lake Huka. Accordingly, many of the deposits contain volcanic ash aggregates.

Eruption process

The timescale for the growth of the assumed Oruanui mush zone, which has a distinctive chemical and isotopic composition and zircon model-age spectra is now known to be from about 40,000 years ago from earlier Taupō Volcano eruptions. During crystal-liquid separation in this mush, large volumes of melt and crystals were carried upwards into a melt dominant magma body that formed at between 3.5–6 km (2.2–3.7 mi) depth. There is emerging evidence that much of the silicic magma produced was formed deeper than this in the middle or lower crust (some have suggested as deep as the upper mantle) and ascending rapidly to this magma reservoir with only brief storage there. The relative uniformity of the eruptives (99% high-SiO₂ rhyolite), suggests the Oruanui magma body had been vigorously convecting by the time of the eruption. Nonetheless composition analysis shows that three different rhyolites contributed, with the initial two phases of the eruption having contributions from a leak of biotite-bearing rhyolite, presumably along dykes at more than 2 km (1.2 mi) depth, associated with tectonic faulting from a magma chamber to the north. The biotite-bearing rhyolite composition is like that found within the Maroa Caldera adjacent to the Taupō Volcano.

These initial stages were from magma at relatively low overpressure and if stored and matured in a shallow magma chamber had a temperature of about 780 ± 20 °C, with between a week to two weeks ascent of magma before eruption. It is possible that if the later majority of the magma formed deeper, the maturing temperature was about 900 °C. About 0.5% of the eruptives was low-SiO₂ rhyolite believed to have been tapped from isolated pockets in the underlying crystal mush. Two distinct mafic magmas were involved in the eruption, and a total volume of 3–5 km (0.72–1.20 cu mi) of mafic magma is atypically high compared to other nearby rhyolitic eruptions.

The timescales involved in the final eruption priming appear to be only decades long at most. The eruption itself lasted only a few months, with most of the stages as described below being continuous. The location of the eruptive vents are only known for the first four stages of the eruption. Vents during stage 1 and 2 were in the north-east portion of present Lake Taupō, a third vent (or more likely several vents) was closer to the eastern alignment of the later Hatepe eruption, and the 4th vent was more central. The later stages of the eruption may have had venting from much of what is now the northern part of Lake Taupō.

While pyroclastic density currents were generated throughout the eruption, the peak distance reached in ignimbrite deposits was about 90 km (56 mi) during phase 8. This phase, as well as several others, before phase 10, were not that much smaller than the later Hatepe eruption of the Taupō Volcano. Ash (Kawakawa tephra) distributed during the various stages created a stratigraphic layer found over much of New Zealand and its surrounding sea bed as wind direction varied, the eruptive columns were so high, and the volumes of ash were so large.

Eruption Timetable  pre-eruption   syn-eruption   biotite-bearing in high-SiO₂ rhyolite   99% high-SiO₂ rhyolite.

Approximate start time process relative to eruption (years)	Geological Stage	Eruption Stage	Geological Event	Eruption Relevance	Tephra Volume< (km)	Igmibrite Volume< (km)
10000	1	–	Assimilation into melt of Cretaceous to Jurassic basement greywacke and Quaternary igneous rocks	magma reservoir size and composition	–	–
10000	2	–	Mush crystallisation and development of interstitial melt	magma reservoir development and composition	–	–
3000	3	–	Melt-dominant magma body predominates	enables potential for eruption	–	–
100	4	–	Crystallisation of rim zones in melt-dominant body	allows timing of cooling	–	–
100	5	–	Recrystallisation of dissolved orthopyroxene	allows timing	–	–
100	6	–	Crystal growth in isolated low-SiO2 rhyolite pockets	immature but tapped in eruption	–	–
10	7	–	Mafic magma interacting with mush	a potential primer event but did not cause the overpressure seen in other super eruptions	–	–
0.01	8	–	Mafic magma infiltration into high-SiO2 rhyolite	process just prior to and during eruption	–	–
0.01	10	–	Lateral, tectonically associated feeding in from north biotite-bearing rhyolite	The early phase 1 and 2 of the eruption were separated by several months, and this compositional signal is suggestive of a tectonic trigger.	–	–
0.01	11	–	Ascent, decompression and fragmentation of magma	Early melt average ascent was about 5 days, these processes are relevant to composition signals and the violence of the eruption, independent of it being under a lake	–	–
0.001	9	–	injection of low-SiO2 rhyolite into high-SiO2 rhyolite	late process during eruption	–	–
0	–	1	–	Single pumice fall, accompanied by wet low-velocity pyroclastics to northwest of vent	0.8	0.01
−0.215	–	2	–	pumice and fine ash in 3 phases	0·8	0.1
−0.2151	–	3	–	Wet with nearby pyroclastic and fall deposits, and distal multiple-bedded fall material postulated after mafic magma recharge	>5	10
−0.2152	–	4	–	Single pumice fall with thin but widespread pyroclastic deposit	2.5	0.1
−0.22	–	5	–	Pumice fall with local pyroclastic deposit	14	1
−0.225	–	6	–	Mixed dry and wet fall with widespread multiple pyroclastic deposits	5.5	10
−0.23	–	7	–	Single pumice fall with widespread, voluminous pyroclastic deposit after mafic magma recharge of about 18 hours	15	10
−0.231	–	8	–	Wet fall deposit, with widespread, voluminous pyroclastic deposit with accretionary lapilli postulated after mafic magma recharge	37	10
−0.232	–	9	–	Single ash and pumice fall bed, with mainly proximal, voluminous pyroclastic deposits	85	10
−0.24	–	10	–	Fine-grained ash, with voluminous pyroclastic deposit in the Lake Taupo basin	265	100

Local impact