NZ Volcano Watch
Current alert level, recent earthquakes, and live weather for each of New Zealand’s 12 active volcanoes — pulled live from GeoNet. Click any volcano for the full picture.
All twelve volcanoes
What the levels mean
Reading the signs
Most of New Zealand’s volcanoes sit at Level 0 most of the time — including the ones right under Auckland and Taupō. That doesn’t mean they’re dormant; they just aren’t showing any unrest right now. The more interesting things to watch are the ones at Level 1 or above, and the earthquake counts nearby.
Earthquakes under a volcano aren’t automatically worrying — most are tectonic, not volcanic. But a sudden swarm of shallow quakes directly under a cone, paired with rising gas emissions or ground deformation, is how real eruptions begin to announce themselves.
Data source
Alert levels come from GeoNet, operated by GNS Science. Seismic data from the GeoNet quake feed. Weather from Open-Meteo. Updates here every time you reload the page.
New Zealand's monitored volcanoes
New Zealand sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire and has twelve volcanic centres monitored continuously by GeoNet. Most of them sit at Volcanic Alert Level 0 or 1 most of the time, but the system is restless enough that levels do shift, sometimes with little warning. Here is a quick guide to each of the country's monitored volcanoes and why each one matters.
Whakaari White Island
Whakaari is New Zealand's most active volcano and sits about 50 kilometres off the Bay of Plenty coast. It has been in a near-continuous state of low-level activity for decades, with steaming vents, an acidic crater lake and frequent small eruptions. The 9 December 2019 eruption killed twenty-two people and reshaped how the country thinks about volcanic risk. Whakaari typically sits at Alert Level 1 or 2, reflecting that minor activity is the baseline rather than the exception.
Mount Ruapehu
Ruapehu is the tallest mountain in the North Island at 2,797 metres and one of the few active volcanoes anywhere with a major ski field on its flanks. Its summit crater holds a hot acidic lake whose temperature is monitored constantly, because rising lake temperatures often precede phreatic eruptions. The 1995 to 1996 eruptive sequence sent ash across half the North Island and closed the ski season. Lahars from Ruapehu killed 151 people on the Tangiwai railway bridge in 1953, making it one of the most carefully watched volcanoes in the country.
Tongariro and Ngauruhoe
The Tongariro complex sits between Ruapehu and Lake Taupō and includes the iconic conical peak of Ngauruhoe, which last erupted in 1975. Tongariro itself produced the Te Maari eruptions in August and November 2012, which sent debris across the Tongariro Alpine Crossing track and forced closures. The complex is part of Tongariro National Park and sees tens of thousands of walkers each summer, so its alert level matters directly to anyone planning the Crossing.
Mount Taranaki
Taranaki is a striking near-perfect cone on the west coast of the North Island. Although it has not erupted since around 1854, the geological record shows it produces a significant eruption roughly every 500 years on average, and the last one was about 170 years ago. GeoNet monitors it continuously despite the long quiet period because eruptions tend to come without years of warning. Taranaki is considered one of New Zealand's higher long-term hazards because of the population living within its ashfall and lahar reach.
Taupō and the Taupō Volcanic Zone
Lake Taupō fills the caldera of a supervolcano whose Oruanui eruption around 25,500 years ago is one of the largest eruptions of the last 100,000 years anywhere on Earth. The more recent Hatepe eruption around 232 AD was still globally significant. Taupō has been at low unrest in recent years with occasional small earthquake swarms, and remains the most-watched caldera in the country. For a comparison of past eruption sizes including Oruanui, Hatepe and a modelled VEI 5 event, see the Taupō past eruptions map and the broader Taupō supervolcano briefing.
Auckland Volcanic Field
Auckland is built on top of a young volcanic field with around 53 small volcanoes, the youngest being Rangitoto at about 600 years old. The field is unusual in that each eruption builds a single new vent rather than reactivating an old one, which makes predicting where the next eruption might emerge particularly difficult. The field is currently considered dormant rather than extinct. GeoNet's monitoring covers seismicity, ground deformation and gas emissions across the field, with civil defence plans ready if the warning signs appear.
The other monitored systems
The remaining GeoNet-monitored systems include Mayor Island (Tūhua) off the Bay of Plenty, the Okataina caldera complex including Mt Tarawera which last erupted catastrophically in 1886, the Rotorua caldera, the Northland fields around Kaikohe and Whangārei, and the remote Kermadec Islands volcanoes including Raoul Island. All sit at low alert levels in recent years but remain on the watch list.