1886 eruption of Mount Tarawera
The 1886 eruption of Mount Tarawera was a violent volcanic eruption that occurred in the early hours of 10 June 1886 at Mount Tarawera, near Rotorua on New Zealand's North Island. The eruption reached an estimated volcanic explosivity index (VEI) of 5 and killed an estimated 120 people, making it the largest and deadliest in New Zealand during the past 500 years, a period that includes the entirety of European history in New Zealand.
Mount Tarawera in Eruption by Charles Blomfield
The Phantom Canoe: A Legend of Lake Tarawera, oil on canvas by Kennett Watkins
Te Wairoa, "The Buried Village"
Site of Waimangu Geyser in the newly-formed rift valley, around 1910
Mount Tarawera is a volcano on the North Island of New Zealand within the older but volcanically productive Ōkataina Caldera. Located 24 kilometres southeast of Rotorua, it consists of a series of rhyolitic lava domes that were fissured down the middle by an explosive basaltic eruption in 1886. While the 1886 eruption was basaltic, study has shown there was only a small basalt component to the previous recent rhyolitic predominant eruptions. This eruption was one of New Zealand's largest historical eruptions, and killed an estimated 120 people. The fissures run for about 17 kilometres (11 mi) northeast–southwest.
Fissure formed during the 1886 eruption
Volcanic crater
Crumbling scoria cliffs surround the summit rift
The Phantom Canoe: A Legend of Lake Tarawera, by Kennett Watkins