Shaky Isles on the Ring of Fire Quiz

Answer: Australian and Pacific

This position on the edge of two tectonic plates gives New Zealand areas of mountain building, earthquakes and volcanic/geothermal activity. These two plates are moving about 40mm per year relative to each other. There is a subduction zone where the Pacific plate slides under the Australian plate to the east of NZ north of Cook Strait (the centre of NZ) which causes a lot of volcanic activity in the North Island. Through most of the South Island the plates slide past each other along the Alpine Fault (strike-slip zone).

Answer: Southern Alps

The Southern Alps are being lifted at a rate of 10cm per year, but being eroded at a similar rate. In this range is Mount Cook, NZ's highest mountain at 3724m (12218 ft).

The Kaweka Range is a small range in the North Island of NZ.

The Misty Mountains are from "The Lord of the Rings" and although some say NZ is the home of Middle Earth they do not exist here, nor do the South Rockies.

Answer: Napier

The 7.8 magnitude Hawkes Bay Earthquake in 1931 killed 256 people (161 in Napier, 93 in Hastings, 2 in Wairoa). Rebuilding of the centre of Napier was in the Art Deco style and is quite a feature of the city now.

There are around 10,000 earthquakes recorded in NZ every year, but only about 150 are felt.

Answer: Yes

There are three areas showing evidence of past volcanic activity in the South Island. Banks Peninsula Volcanoes (near Christchurch), Mount Horrible (near Timaru) and Dunedin Volcano (near Dunedin) are evident. However they have not been active in the past two million years.

Answer: Taupo Volcanic Zone

It extends from Mount Ruapehu in the south to Whakaari/ White Island in the north. The area has been active for over two million years.

Answer: Lake Taupo

The lake partly fills the Taupo caldera which erupted 26,500 years ago in an eruption which ejected 1170 cubic kilometres of material. This was the last eruption on earth to reach a Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) of 8, the most powerful eruptions recorded. Taupo had a VEI-7 eruption around 233 CE and has had major eruptions every thousand years or so. We may be due another one soon!

Lake Rotorua is a caldera formed in a VEI-7 eruption around 240,000 years ago.

Lake Tarawera was formed by the Tarawera VEI-5 eruption in the 19th century.

Lake Ellesmere is a shallow lagoon near Christchurch.

Answer: Rotorua

Although Maori used the geothermal features at Rotorua for hundreds of years, organised tourism in the area didn't occur until the 1870s. Tourists used to stop here after they had visited the Pink and White Terraces which were reportedly the largest silica terrace structures on earth.

These have been destroyed by volcanic activity. Rotorua has several geothermal features including geysers and mudpools within the city. As a result of its popularity for tourism Rotorua has acquired the nickname 'Roto-vegas'.

Other nicknames are 'Sulphur City' and 'Rotten-rua' due to the smell of hydrogen sulphide that hangs over the city to make a smell like rotten eggs.

Answer: Auckland

The last eruption in Auckland was 600 years ago forming Rangitoto Island, the largest of the volcanic cones in the area. Scientists say there will most likely be another eruption in or around this city of 1.6 million people, New Zealand's largest and most important economically.

Answer: Mt Taranaki / Egmont

One of the reasons Mt Taranaki was selected for filming was it resembles Mt Fuji and is surrounded by less developed forest and farmland and was more suitable to stage a 19th century representation of Japan than current built up/developed areas around Mt Fuji.

Mt Ruapehu was used for filming scenes of Mordor in "The Lord of the Rings".
Mt Ngaruhoe represented Mt Doom in "The Lord of the Rings".
Aoraki / Mt Cook doubled for K2 in the filming of "Vertical Limit".

Answer: Tarawera

Waimangu means 'Black Water'. It is named after the black sediment laden water that was thrown up to 460 metres in the air by eruptions of the now extinct Waimangu geyser which was for a time the most powerful geyser in the world. The volcanic rift valley was formed after the eruption of Mt Tarawera in 1886 which killed around 120 people and caused major devastation of the surrounding area.

It destroyed one of the wonders of New Zealand, the Pink and White Terraces. The valley has the world's largest hot spring in Frying Pan Lake as well as many other features and is well worth a visit.