Earth Sciences Commons^™

Probabilistic Modeling Of Tephra Dispersal: Hazard Assessment Of A Multiphase Rhyolitic Eruption At Tarawera, New Zealand, Costanza Bonadonna, Charles B. Connor, B. F. Houghton, Laura Connor, Marc A. Byrne, A. Laing, T. K. Hincks

Geology Faculty Publications

The Tarawera Volcanic Complex comprises 11 rhyolite domes formed during five major eruptions between 17,000 B.C. and A.D. 1886, the first four of which were predominantly rhyolitic. The only historical event erupted about 2 km³ of basaltic tephra fall (A.D. 1886). The youngest rhyolitic event erupted a tephra fall volume more than 2 times larger and covered a wider area northwest and southeast of the volcano (∼A.D. 1315 Kaharoa eruption). We have used the Kaharoa scenario to assess the tephra fall hazard from a future rhyolitic eruption at Tarawera of a similar scale. The Plinian phase of this eruption …