Three years ago, our most active volcano warned us of its impulsive and devastating power. We didn’t listen.


	What happened on Whakaari? Three years ago, our most active volcano warned us of its impulsive and devastating power. We didn’t listen.


	The fire beneath us New Zealand’s largest city sits atop an active volcanic field that has erupted at least 53 times in the past 250,000 years. The catastrophic blasts felled forests and set the Auckland isthmus alight. The fire-fountaining cones and lava flows rode roughshod over the land. Scientists are not wondering if it will happen again, but what it will cost Auckland in lives and infrastructure when it does.

The night Tarawera awoke

When Mt Tarawera and the surrounding area erupted in the early hours of June 10, 1886, the explosion annihilated the Pink and White Terraces, smothered a vast swathe of countryside with ash and killed more than 100 people.

Fire and water

Extending some 1400 kilometres northeast from the Bay of Plenty, the Kermadec Arc is the longest underwater volcanic ridge on the planet.

New Zealand Geographic publisher James Frankham on documenting Whakaari/White Island.