Tank Farm (sometimes Tuff Crater) is the name of a volcanic explosion crater (or maar) on the North Shore of Auckland, New Zealand, near the approaches to the Auckland Harbour Bridge.
Tank Farm (sometimes Tuff Crater) is the name of a volcanic explosion crater (or maar) on the North Shore of Auckland, New Zealand, near the approaches to the Auckland Harbour Bridge.
Part of the Auckland volcanic field, it was created by a series of explosive eruptions. Although its age is unknown it could be one of the older volcanoes in Auckland like its neighbours Onepoto and Lake Pupuke. Originally a freshwater lake, it later became a tidal lagoon when the sea levels rose after the last ice age. Tank Farm is mostly in its natural state, though some parts of the tuff ring were quarried and its name stems from the petrochemicals storage tanks located here during World War II. [1]
Tank Farm and neighbouring Onepoto were fresh water lakes when sea levels were lower using the Last Glacial Maximum. As sea levels rose, the waters of the Waitematā Harbour breached the tuff rings of the craters, becoming tidal lagoons. [2]
Its Maori name is Te Kopua o Matakamokamo, meaning 'the basin of Matakamokamo'. Matakamokamo is an ancestral figure in Maori oral tradition who, during a domestic argument, is said to have inadvertently cursed the goddess of fire, Mahuika. As punishment, the goddess called on the parent god Mataoho, who had the necessary powers, to send up numerous volcanic eruptions to plague the hot-tempered man and his wife Matakerepo. The two eruptions that were eventually fatal to the couple were said to be at the sites of what is now called Tank Farm and Onepoto Domain respectively. Consequently, the former was named Te Kopua o Matakamokamo, and the latter Te Kopua o Matakerepo. [3]
The local council uses the name Tuff Crater for this volcano - a name taken from Hochstetter's (1864) map of the volcanoes of Auckland where a number of volcanoes, including Tank Farm, were each labelled "tuff crater" or "tuff craters". The name Tank Farm became popularised during World War II, when bulk fuel storage tanks were constructed adjacent to the crater. [2]
The crater is now surrounded by a 35-hectare nature reserve. [4]
Rangitoto Island is a volcanic island in the Hauraki Gulf near Auckland, New Zealand. The 5.5 km (3.4 mi) wide island is a symmetrical shield volcano cone capped by central scoria cones, reaching a height of 260 m (850 ft). Rangitoto is the youngest and largest of the approximately 50 volcanoes of the Auckland volcanic field, having erupted in two phases about 620 and 600 years ago and covering an area of 2,311 ha. It is separated from the mainland of Auckland's North Shore by the Rangitoto Channel. Since World War II, it has been linked by a causeway to the much older, non-volcanic Motutapu Island.
The Auckland volcanic field is an area of monogenetic volcanoes covered by much of the metropolitan area of Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, located in the North Island. The approximately 53 volcanoes in the field have produced a diverse array of maars, tuff rings, scoria cones, and lava flows. With the exception of Rangitoto, no volcano has erupted more than once, but the other eruptions lasted for various periods ranging from a few weeks to several years. Rangitoto erupted several times and recently twice; in an eruption that occurred about 600 years ago, followed by a second eruption approximately 50 years later. The field is fuelled entirely by basaltic magma, unlike the explosive subduction-driven volcanism in the central North Island, such as at Mount Ruapehu and Lake Taupō. The field is currently dormant, but could become active again.
The Panmure Basin, also sometimes known as the Panmure Lagoon, is a tidal estuary within a volcanic crater or maar in New Zealand's Auckland volcanic field. It is located to the south of Panmure town centre.
Onepoto is the name of a volcanic explosion crater on the North Shore in Auckland, New Zealand. It is a part of the Auckland volcanic field. It should not be confused with Onepoto Hill, which is a volcanic feature of the South Auckland volcanic field.
Māngere Lagoon is a lagoon in the Manukau Harbour, New Zealand. It occupies a volcanic crater or maar which is part of the Auckland volcanic field. Oval and about 600m long, it has a small restored scoria island remaining in the centre.
Achilles Point is a rocky point on the headland at the eastern end of the small sandy beach named Ladies Bay, Auckland, New Zealand. The name 'Te Pane o Horoiwi' can also sometimes refer to the whole headland between St Heliers and Tamaki River estuary. Achilles Point is named after a ship called HMNZS Achilles (70) which defeated the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee in 1939. The headland, from the point round to the Tamaki heads, was previously known as Te Pane o Horoiwi, named after Horoiwi who arrived in New Zealand on the Tainui canoe (waka).
The Auckland Region of New Zealand is built on a basement of greywacke rocks that form many of the islands in the Hauraki Gulf, the Hunua Ranges, and land south of Port Waikato. The Waitākere Ranges in the west are the remains of a large andesitic volcano, and Great Barrier Island was formed by the northern end of the Coromandel Volcanic Zone. The Auckland isthmus and North Shore are composed of Waitemata sandstone and mudstone, and portions of the Northland Allochthon extend as far south as Albany. Little Barrier Island was formed by a relatively isolated andesitic volcano, active around 1 to 3 million years ago.
Crater Hill is one of the volcanoes of the Auckland volcanic field, in New Zealand. It consists of an explosion crater about 600 metres (2,000 ft) wide, partly filled with water. The hill, alongside Māngere Lagoon, Waitomokia, Kohuora, Pukaki Lagoon and Robertson Hill, is one of the volcanic features collectively referred to as Nga Tapuwae a Mataoho, referring to the deity in Tāmaki Māori myths who was involved in their creation.
Te Hopua a Rangi, also known as Gloucester Park is one of the volcanoes in the Auckland volcanic field in Auckland, New Zealand, and is located in Onehunga. Its 300 m wide, sediment-filled explosion (maar) crater was used as a boat harbour in early European times and known first as Onehunga Basin then as Geddes Basin. It was reclaimed in the 1930s and named Gloucester Park in 1935 after the visit to New Zealand by the Duke of Gloucester in that year. From 1975 into the early 80's the South-western motorway was built right through the middle of the park and crater. The southern side was turned into a sports ground, and the western side as a wetland with activity space for Aotea Sea Scouts who took ownership of the Manukau Yacht and Motor Boat Club (MYMBC) club house, in 1977.
Waitomokia is a volcano in the Auckland volcanic field. Waitomokia's 600 m (2,000 ft) wide tuff crater contained three small scoria cones up to 20 m (66 ft) high, one with a crater, which were quarried in the 1950s.
Maungataketake is one of the volcanoes in the Auckland volcanic field in New Zealand. It had a 76 m high scoria cone, beside a 100 m wide crater, before they were quarried away. It was the site of a pā. Layers of volcanic tuff and ash from Maungataketake overlay the fallen trunks of the nearby Ihumātao fossil forest. The New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage gives a translation of "broad mountain" for Maungataketake.
Pukaki Lagoon, located in the suburb of Māngere, New Zealand, is one of the volcanoes in the Auckland volcanic field. The lagoon, alongside Māngere Lagoon, Waitomokia, Crater Hill, Kohuora and Robertson Hill, is one of the volcanic features collectively referred to as Nga Tapuwae a Mataoho, referring to the deity in Tāmaki Māori myths who was involved in their creation.
Ōrākei Basin is one of the volcanoes in the Auckland volcanic field in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an explosion crater around 700 m wide, with a surrounding tuff ring. The present basin is slightly larger than the original maar crater.
Robertson Hill is one of the volcanoes in the Auckland volcanic field in New Zealand. It erupted approximately 24,300 years ago. The hill, alongside Māngere Lagoon, Waitomokia, Crater Hill, Kohuora and Pukaki Lagoon, is one of the volcanic features collectively referred to as Nga Tapuwae a Mataoho, referring to the deity in Tāmaki Māori myths who was involved in their creation.
Kohuora, located in the suburb of Papatoetoe, is one of the volcanoes in the Auckland volcanic field in the North Island of New Zealand.
Boggust Park Crater is a volcano in the Auckland volcanic field, New Zealand. Located in the Favona area of the Māngere suburb, it is one of Auckland city's older volcanoes. It was first recognised as a volcano in 2011. The park in which it is located is named after Ralph Boggust, former superintendent of Manukau Parks Dept.
Grafton Volcano is a buried volcano in New Zealand's Auckland volcanic field that underlies much of the Auckland suburb of Grafton. First recognised in 2010, it includes the Outhwaite Park scoria cone that was first mapped by Hochstetter (1864) and inferred by later geologists to be a late phase vent of adjacent Pukekawa Volcano. Borehole drilling and building excavations in the Grafton-Auckland Domain area during the 1990s and 2000s provided new subsurface geological information that allowed geologists to recognise the buried Grafton Volcano.
The Puhinui Craters are located in Auckland's Puhinui Reserve and are part of the Auckland volcanic field in the North Island of New Zealand. They were first recognised as volcanic craters in 2011. A cluster of three small maar craters like these is unique in the Auckland volcanic field. Their ages are unknown but most probably all three erupted during the same eruptive episode. They could have been associated with the eruption of nearby Matukutureia but this is speculation at present.
Maungawhau / Mount Eden is a scoria cone and Tūpuna Maunga in the Mount Eden suburb of Auckland, New Zealand.
Mataaho is a Māori deity. Variously considered a god of earthquakes and eruptions, the guardian of the earth's secrets, the god of volcanic forces, or a giant, Mataaho is associated with many of the volcanic features in the Tāmaki Makaurau Region. In traditional Tāmaki Māori myths, Mataaho either creates the volcanic features of the landscape, or requests the gods to create them. Mataaho holds traditional significance for Te Kawerau ā Maki and Waiohua iwi, and is considered a tupuna (ancestor) of Te Ākitai Waiohua iwi.
Coordinates: 36°48′07″S174°45′12″E / 36.8020°S 174.7533°E
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