The Taupō Volcanic Zone (TVZ) is a volcanic area in the North Island of New Zealand that has been active for the past two million years and is still highly active. Mount Ruapehu marks its south-western end and the zone runs north-eastward through the Taupō and Rotorua areas and offshore into the Bay of Plenty. It is part of the larger Central Volcanic Region that extends further westward through the western Bay of Plenty to the eastern side of the Coromandel Peninsula and has been active for four million years. At Taupō the rift volcanic zone is widening east–west at the rate of about 8 mm per year while at Mount Ruapehu it is only 2–4 mm per year but this increases at the north eastern end at the Bay of Plenty coast to 10–15 mm per year. It is named after Lake Taupō, the flooded caldera of the largest volcano in the zone, the Taupō Volcano and contains a large central volcanic plateau as well as other landforms associated with its containing tectonic intra-arc continental Taupō Rift.
The Rotorua Caldera, now in filled with Lake Rotorua, is a large rhyolitic caldera. It is one of several large volcanoes located in the Taupō Volcanic Zone on the North Island of New Zealand.
The North Island Fault System (NIFS) is a set of southwest–northeast trending seismically-active faults in the North Island of New Zealand that carry most of the dextral strike-slip component of the oblique convergence of the Pacific Plate with the Australian Plate.
The Kapenda Caldera in New Zealands Taupō Volcanic Zone lies in a low land area immediately south of Lake Rotorua through the Hemo Gap in the Rotorua Caldera rim.
Ōkataina Caldera is a massive, recently active volcanic caldera and its associated volcanoes located in Taupō Volcanic Zone of New Zealand's North Island. It is just east of the smaller Rotorua Caldera and southwest of the much smaller Rotomā Embayment which is usually regarded as an associated volcano. It is best known for its high rates of explosive rhyolitic volcanism although its last eruption was basaltic. Confusingly the postulated Haroharo Caldera contained within it, has sometimes been described in almost interchangeable terms with the Ōkataina Caldera or volcanic complex or centre and by other authors as a separate complex. Since 2010 other terms such as the Haroharo vent alignment, Utu Caldera, Matahina Caldera, Rotoiti Caldera and a postulated Kawerau Caldera have replaced this classification.
The relatively small Rotomā Caldera is in the Taupō Volcanic Zone in the North Island of New Zealand.
The Waihi Fault Zone is a seismically active area of the central North Island of New Zealand whose earthquakes have been associated with significant loss of life.
The Poutu Fault Zone is a seismically active area of the central North Island of New Zealand.
The Paeroa Fault is a seismically active area in the Taupō District, Waikato Region of the central North Island of New Zealand.
The Taupō Rift is the seismically active rift valley containing the Taupō Volcanic Zone, central North Island of New Zealand.
The Ngapouri-Rotomahana Fault is a seismically and volcanically active area of the central North Island of New Zealand.
The Ohakuri Caldera was formed in a paired single event eruption of Ohakuri ignimbrite and is located in the Taupo Volcanic Zone on the North Island of New Zealand. Its significance was first recognised in 2004, as the geology of the area had been misunderstood until then. The paired eruption resulted in a very large eruption sequence in the Taupō Volcanic Zone about 240,000 years ago that included the formation of Lake Rotorua.
The Ōkareka Embayment is a volcanic feature in Taupo Volcanic Zone of New Zealand. It most significant recent volcanic eruption was about 15,700 years ago and this deposited the widespread Rotorua tephra that reached beyond Auckland.
The Horohoro Fault is in the old Taupō Rift of the central North Island of New Zealand.
The Taupō Fault Belt contains many almost parallel active faults and is located in the Taupō Rift of the central North Island of New Zealand geographically between Lake Taupō and the lakes of Rotorua, Tarawera, Rotomahana and Rerewhakaaitu. The Waikato River bisects the western region of the belt.
The Manawahe Fault line is a seismically active area in the Bay of Plenty Region of the central North Island of New Zealand with the potential to be involved with other faults in an 7.0 event.
The Whakatāne Graben is a predominantly normal faulting tectonic feature of the northeastern most aspect of the young, modern Taupō Rift in New Zealand. At the coast it is widening by about 7 mm (0.28 in)/year. This very geologically active graben was the site of the 1987 Edgecumbe earthquake, which caused up to 2 m of land subsidence. The discontinuity in the Taupō Volcanic Zone's faults imposed by the highly active Ōkataina Volcanic Centre, geography and geology mean the graben includes the actively expanding and lowering region onshore extending towards the coast, but some scientists have used the term to refer to only the offshore continuation of the Taupō Rift.
The Rangipo Fault is the eastern Taupō rift-bounding north–south striking normal fault complex of the Ruapehu Graben, a seismically active area of the central North Island of New Zealand to the west of Mount Ruapehu. It could be part of a 7.1 potential rupture.
The Upper Waikato Stream Fault is an eastern Taupō rift-bounding north–south striking normal fault in the Ruapehu Graben, a seismically active area of the central North Island of New Zealand to the west of Mount Ruapehu. While its own whole fault rupture potential is 6.5, such a rupture could be part of a Mw 7.1 multi-fault rupture.
The Whangamata fault zone is part of the seismically active western Taupō rift-bounding normal wall faults and is associated with the major active Whangamata Fault and Haukari/West Whangamata Fault and several unnamed active faults. Obsidian used by the Māori is exposed along these faults.
