Rangitoto from Kohi Beach

Description

Rangitoto Island is a volcanic island in the Hauraki Gulf near Auckland, New Zealand. The 5.5 km wide island is a symmetrical shield volcano cone capped by central scoria cones, reaching a height of 260 m (850 ft). Rangitoto is the youngest and largest of the approximately 50 volcanoes of the Auckland volcanic field, having erupted in two phases about 1450 CE and 1500 CE and covering an area of 2,311 ha (5,710 acres). It is separated from the mainland of Auckland’s North Shore by the Rangitoto Channel.

Rangitoto formed during two phases of eruptions that may have lasted only 5–10 years, about 600 years ago. The first part of the eruption sequence, dated by radiocarbon methods at about 627 years ago, was initially wet and produced surges of volcanic ash that mantled neighbouring Motutapu Island from alkaline olivine basalt eruptives sourced from the north cone area. The later part of the eruption dated at about 578 years ago was dry and built most of Rangitoto, erupting all the sub-alkaline basaltic lava flows of the shield and the southern scoria cone at the apex that mostly buried the north cone.

Rangitoto is Māori for ‘Bloody Sky’, with the name coming from the full phrase Ngā Rangi-i-totongia-a Tama-te-kapua (“The days of the bleeding of Tama-te-kapua”). Tama-te-kapua was the captain of the Arawa waka (canoe) and was badly wounded on the island, after having lost a battle with the Tainui iwi (tribe) at Islington Bay.