Supervolcano warning as threat level raised 1,800 years after world's biggest eruption
dailystar.co.ukREAD MORE: Mexico rocked by huge 7.6 'severe' to 'violent' earthquake triggering tsunami warningsA series of nearly 700 earthquakes since May, has led Geological agency GeoNet to raise the threat level of the Taupō supervolcano despite them being so small that many were not felt on land.Fortunately experts insist that the chance of an eruption “remains very low”, with the largest of recent earthquakes on on September 10, reaching a magnitude of 4.5 on the Richter scale which goes up to nine.
The volcano's magmatic system is believed to be located at Horomatangi Reef in Lake Taupō where most of the earthquakes and ground deformation has been recorded.GeoNet said in a statement: “We interpret the ground uplift and earthquake activity to be caused by the movement of magma and the hydrothermal fluids inside the volcano.“We have also sampled springs and gas vents around the lake for changes in chemistry that may be related to the earthquake and ground uplift.”Since 1870, 17 episodes of unrest have been recorded at Taupō since 1870 but none more threatening than level 2 of the alert system, had it existed at the time.
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