Catalog record
These fields are copied from the Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program Holocene volcano snapshot stored on this site. The file was fetched 2026-09-19T12:21:44Z. It is a location catalog, not a live alert.
- Catalog name
- Ruapehu
- GVP number
- 241100
- Country
- New Zealand
- Type
- Stratovolcano
- Elevation
- 2,797 m
- Region
- Tonga-Kermadec Volcanic Regions
- Subregion
- Taupo Volcanic Arc
- Tectonic setting
- Subduction zone / Continental crust (> 25 km)
- Last-eruption year
- 2007
- Evidence code
- Eruption Observed
- Latitude, longitude
- -39.28, 175.57
Elevation rank in the Taupo Volcanic Arc in this snapshot: 1 of 6. Rank is by the listed elevation only. It is not a hazard ranking.
How to read the last-eruption year
The year is a catalog field. A recent year means the snapshot recorded activity in that year. It is not an alert level, a size, or a statement about what happens next. Evidence codes in this file include “Eruption Observed” and “Eruption Dated.” Those are Smithsonian categories for how the eruption year was established, not a forecast flag.
Setting
Ruapehu is a stratovolcano at 2,797 m, last-eruption year 2007, evidence “Eruption Observed.” The same Taupo Volcanic Arc includes Whakaari/White Island at 294 m with a last-eruption year of 2026, and Tongariro at 1,978 m. The arc has six Holocene rows in this file, so the elevation rank is short and readable.
Both Ruapehu and Whakaari fall in the New Zealand / Kermadec rectangle west of the date line. The tectonic code is subduction under continental crust. This page does not describe crater-lake level, ash advisories, or lahar paths. Those change, and they belong to New Zealand’s monitoring agencies.
Inside these documented rectangles: New Zealand / Kermadec (W of date line). The rectangles are documented on the About page. They are a lat/lon belt, not an official plate polygon.
Other volcanoes in this subregion
Highest listed elevations in the Taupo Volcanic Arc in this snapshot, excluding this volcano when it is already first:
- Tongariro, 1,978 m, last-eruption year 2012.
- Okataina, 1,111 m, last-eruption year 1981.
- Taupo, 760 m, last-eruption year 260.
Distance to published great-earthquake epicenters
The distances below use this volcano’s catalog coordinates and epicenters from the USGS list of the 20 largest earthquakes since 1900. They are spherical distances to points, not distances to a fault trace, and not a hazard score.
- 1938 M8.5 Banda Sea (1938-02-01 19:04 UTC) — 5,822 km from the catalog point.
- 2007 M8.4 southern Sumatra (2007-09-12 11:10 UTC) — 8,337 km from the catalog point.
- 1960 M9.5 Valdivia, Chile (1960-05-22 19:11 UTC) — 8,902 km from the catalog point.
You can repeat the measurement for any coordinates on the distance to fault references tool.
What this page will not tell you
It will not tell you the next eruption time, the next earthquake on the neighboring trench, or an evacuation route. For U.S. volcano notices, use the USGS Volcano Hazards Program. For earthquakes, use the USGS event pages linked from Live Quakes. This site’s volcano map only draws the Holocene catalog.