Core Education

The following questions from schools are answered by volcanologists and an iwi-based researcher: 1. We saw a GNS video on measuring sulfate and chloride ions in the crater lake. Do geologists measure these in Lake Taupō to track activity? 2. How can we tell if a supervolcano is in a building phase, “potentially culminating, at some undetermined point in the future, in a large-scale eruption again in New Zealand"? 3. Yellowstone is a famous supervolcano, is it more likely to erupt again before Lake Taupō caldera? 4. Are all supervolcanoes rhyolite calderas? 5. Does new pumice get generated without an eruption? It always seems to be floating on the lake. 6. Could we get a supervolcano in Auckland? 7. There is a geothermal electricity station near Taupō. Why don't we have any at Tongariro or Rotorua?