Mount Ruapehu is an active stratovolcano at the southern end of the Taupō Volcanic Zone and North Island volcanic plateau in New Zealand. It is 23 km (14 mi) northeast of Ohakune and 23 km (14 mi) southwest of the southern shore of Lake Taupō, within the Tongariro National Park. The North Island's major ski resorts and only glaciers are on its slopes.
Ruapehu, the largest active volcano in New Zealand, has the highest point in the North Island and has three major peaks: Tahurangi (2,797 m), Te Heuheu (2,755 m) and Paretetaitonga (2,751 m). The deep, active crater is between the peaks and fills with water between major eruptions, being known as Crater Lake (Māori: Te Wai ā-moe). The name Ruapehu means "pit of noise" or "exploding pit" in Māori.
Ruapehu is located in the center of the North Island of New Zealand, 23 km (14 mi) northeast of Ohakune, New Zealand and 23 km (14 mi) southwest of the southern shore of Lake Taupō, within Tongariro National Park. Ruapehu is the largest and southernmost volcano in the national park, with an estimated volume of 110 km3.[4] The volcano is surrounded by a ring plain of volcanic material, made from lahar deposits, ash fall, and landslide debris.
There are three access routes to Ruapehu, and each access route leads to one of the three skifields that are found on its slopes. State Highway 48 leads to Whakapapa Village at the base of the mountain, and from there an access road leads up the mountain to Iwikau Village at the base of the Whakapapa skifield on the northwestern slopes. An access road from Ohakune leads to Turoa skifield on the southwestern slopes, and a four-wheel drive track leads from the Desert Road (State Highway 1) to the Tukino skifield on the eastern slopes.
pehu's active crater, dubbed Crater Lake (Te Wai ā-moe), is situated at the southern end of the Summit Plateau, and as the name suggests, is filled with a warm, acidic lake. The lake's outlet is at the head of the Whangaehu Valley, where the Whangaehu River arises. The Whangaehu River is notorious for destructive lahars caused by Ruapehu's eruptions. In historic times, eruptions have built tephra dams across the outlet on several occasions, most recently in 1945 and 1996. These dams failed in 1953 and 2007 respectively, causing an outburst of Crater Lake each time, which sent destructive lahars down the river. The 1953 lahar was the cause of the Tangiwai disaster, in which 151 people died. Even larger lahars occurred in 1862 and 1895. A total of 18 glaciers have been recognized on Ruapehu, of which six are named. s are found in the active crater: one on the north side of the crater under Paretetaitonga Peak and another one to the south, and these are New Zealand's only crater glaciers.[11] Most of the ice on Ruapehu is contained in only three of its glaciers: the Whangaehu, Summit Plateau, and Mangatoetoenui glaciers.[10] The Summit Plateau glacier is not a glacier in the true sense, but rather an ice field that fills an extinct volcanic crater, and the ice there reaches more than 130 m thick. The Whangaehu glacier feeds the Whangaehu River, and the Mangatoetoenui glacier is one of the principal sources of the Waikato River, which arises as a series of streams on Ruapehu's eastern slopes. On the western side of the mountain, many of the streams that arise there, such as the Whakapapa and Manganui o te Ao rivers, feed the Whanganui River. Ruapehu's glaciers are situated at the northern limit for the formation of permanent ice in New Zealand, and thus they are extremely sensitive to changes in climate. Surveys of the glaciers undertaken since 1955 have found that the glaciers have all been thinning and retreating, with the exception of the northern crater glacier, which thickened and lengthened after the 1953 outburst of Crater Lake lowered the...
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