Lake Taupo

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Lake Taupo ( Taupo nui a Tia )
Lake taupo landsat.jpg
Lake Taupo photographed from space (NASA photo)
Geographical location Taupo District , Waikato , New Zealand
Tributaries Tongariro River
Tauranga Taupo River
Waitahanui River
Drain Waikato River
Islands Motutaiko Island ,
Motuwhara Island
Places on the shore Taupo , Turangi
Location close to the shore Rotorua
Data
Coordinates 38 ° 48 ′  S , 175 ° 54 ′  E Coordinates: 38 ° 48 ′  S , 175 ° 54 ′  E
Lake Taupo (New Zealand)
Lake Taupo
Altitude above sea level 356  m
surface 622 km²
length 40 km
width 28 km
volume 59 km³dep1
Maximum depth 160 m
Catchment area 3487 km²

particularities

Crater lake and largest lake in New Zealand

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The Lake Taupo ( Māori : Taupo nui a Tia ) in New Zealand is the crater of a before 26,500 years collapsed volcano and the largest lake in the country.

Origin of name

The Māori gave the lake the name Taupo nui a Tia , which translated into German means "the great cloak of Tia ". Tia was the leader of the Waka Arawa , one of the canoes with which the Māori settled New Zealand from Hawaiki .

geography

Mount Tauhara from Lake Taupo seen from

The lake is located in the Taupo Volcanic Zone in the central region of New Zealand's North Island . The distance to the coast is around 100 km to the west and east. To the north, the distance between the lake and the Bay of Plenty is around 110 km and to the south, the sea is around 125 km away.

The Taupo 40 km long, 28 km wide and extends km over an area of 622 square kilometers at a capacity of about 193rd It is a maximum of 160 meters deep and its water volume is estimated at around 59 km³. The lake level is between 355.85 m and 357.20 m in height, depending on the water inflow and water withdrawal for electricity generation. The Taupo has over 30 inflows that an area of about 3487 square kilometers drain, which corresponds to the 5½ times the area of the lake. The three largest tributaries are the Tongariro River , the Tauranga Taupo River, and the Waitahanui River . The runoff occurs exclusively via the Waikato River at the northeast end of the lake.

The mountain slopes around Lake Taupo rise to an average of 500 to 700 meters, with the slopes on the southern edges of the lake being usually higher than on the northern edge. The largest settlements on the lake are the city of Taupo on the Waikato River , followed by the much smaller town of Turangi near the mouth of the Tongariro River . Motutaiko Island in the southeast and the much smaller Motuwhara Island in the west are the only two islands in the lake. Motutaiko Island has a size of 11  hectares and is 3.4 km from the shore.

The lake can be reached via State Highway 1 , which passes the shore to the east, and via State Highway 32 and State Highway 41 , both of which pass west of the lake.

Formation of the lake

The formation of almost all of today's lake goes back to the one huge eruption of the Taupo volcano , which is now called the Ōruanui eruption and is one of the world's most important eruptions of the past 250,000 years. The volcanic material that was thrown out and distributed over a wide area, including ash and pumice stone , had a volume of almost 1,200 km³, which is more than a hundred times the eruption of Pinatubo in 1991. At the end of the eruption, which lasted for weeks and months, the magma chamber under the volcano collapsed , creating a so-called caldera , a 140 km² depression. Immediately adjacent areas also collapsed, increasing the subsidence area to over 500 km². The lowering should have been a total of 500 m. The rivers of the 3487 km² catchment area of ​​today's lake filled the depression with water, which finally made a breakthrough to the north at today's city of Taupo, whereby the lake maintains its current water level. At this breakthrough, the Huka Falls were created , which, with a drop height of around eleven meters, are an attraction for tourists and white water runners.

Settlement and use

Sailing on Lake Taupo

In 2006, around 32,400 people lived on the banks and the mountain slopes above the lake. The lake is enjoying increasing popularity with older people who move there to spend their old age there. It is also a popular holiday destination. Although there is a lack of suitable beaches, it attracts vacationers for sailing, pleasure boating, fishing, and other sports activities. Together with the timber industry, tourism makes the largest contribution to the gross domestic product of the Taupo region (1998 a total of NZ $ 750 million ).

The lake is known by anglers for its lake trout and rainbow trout , and trout fishing brings the region around NZ $ 70 million annually.

Web links

Commons : Lake Taupo  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Volcano Fact Sheet - Taupo Volcano . (PDF 554 kB) GNS Science , accessed on February 11, 2016 .
  2. ↑ a b Lake Taupo area . Department of Conservation , accessed July 17, 2013 .
  3. ^ Lake Taupo . Waikato Regional Council , accessed July 18, 2013 .
  4. ^ Motutaiko Island . Department of Conservation , archived from the original on March 4, 2014 ; accessed on April 25, 2019 (original website no longer available).
  5. ^ The Taupo volcano . In: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand . Ministry for Culture & Heritage , accessed July 19, 2013 .
  6. ↑ Colin JN Wilson : The 26.5 ka Oruanui eruption, New Zealand: an introduction and overview . In: Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research . tape  112 , no. 1-4 , December 2001, ISSN  0377-0273 , pp. 133–174 , doi : 10.1016 / j.bbr.2011.03.031 (English).
  7. ↑ Taupo lakebed - Background . In: Lake Taupo '98 - The JAGO dive project . New Zealand Mineral , October 1998, archived from the original on March 27, 2012 ; accessed on February 11, 2016 (English, original website no longer available).
  8. ^ QuickStats About Taupo District . Statistics New Zealand , accessed July 19, 2013 .
  9. ^ A b c Protecting Lake Taupo . (PDF 968 kB) Environment Waikato Regional Council , 2003, archived from the original on November 27, 2013 ; Retrieved on July 19, 2013 (original website no longer available).
  10. ^ Lake Taupo Trout Fishing . NZ Fishing , accessed July 19, 2013 .