The Haroharo Caldera is a 26 by 16 km (16.2 by 9.9 mi) volcanic feature in Taupō Volcanic Zone of the North Island, New Zealand.

Geography

In the north the Haroharo Caldera extends from the eastern half of Lake Rotoiti to the western border of Lake Rotoma. Its southern extent is defined by the Tarawera volcano.

Geology

The Haroharo Caldera is within the older and larger Ōkataina Caldera. Accordingly it may not be regarded as a caldera in its own right and there have been many attempts to rationalise the literature. There have been multiple significant eruptions from the Haroharo vent line that is parallel and to the north of the Mount Tarawera vent line also within the Ōkataina Caldera. There has been a large amount of dome infilling that refer to the name but the Ōkataina complex volcano appears to have emerged as a better term than the Haroharo volcano to understand the processes that have happened in this portion of the Taupō Volcanic Zone.[1] It had a VEI-5 volcanic eruption about 6060 BCE producing about 17 km³ (4.1 cu mi) of eruptive material and one about 2000 years later that produced 13 km³ (3.1 cu mi) of material.[2] Both the Okareka Embayment and the Tarawera Volcanic Complex are adjacent to the Haroharo Caldera which older maps had overlapping the Okataina caldera as part of the Ōkataina volcanic centre[3] and sometimes defined as the Haroharo volcanic complex. However its linear parallel young vent alignment to those of the similarly young in geological terms Tarawera volcano means it is now usually regarded as a subsidiary volcanic part of the Ōkataina Caldera which in the last 21,000 years has contributed a total magma eruptive volume greater than about 80 km³ (19 cu mi).[4][5]

References