Previous volcanic eruptions in New Zealand
1914 - The White Island volcano's last fatal eruption kills 10 sulphur miners
August 1938 - The White Island volcano erupts in the Bay of Plenty off North Island
1953 - An eruption at Mount Ruapehu on North Island wrecks a railway bridge just before the arrival of a Wellington-Auckland express train, plunging it into a river and killing more than 150
February 20, 1992 - The White Island volcano, then termed New Zealand's most active, spews a huge column of grey ash as scientists prepare to venture into its crater on a routine study
September-October 1995 - Mount Ruapehu erupts in several bursts, sending clouds of ash 10,000m into the air
Three volcanic peaks in the central part of the North Island, Mount Ruapehu, Mt Ngauruhoe and Mt Tongariro, form the southern tip of the Pacific Rim of Fire, an arc of active volcanoes around the Pacific Ocean
June-July 1996 - Mount Ruapehu erupts, belching glowing car-sized boulders and disrupting air traffic
March 2006 - Volcanic eruption on remote Raoul Island, part of a nature reserve in the Kermadec group, causes plume of steam and ash, besides spewing mud from a lake The island is 1,000 km (600 miles) northeast of New Zealand
March 18, 2007 - The volcanic crater lake at Mt Ruapehu bursts its banks, sending a mudflow toward the rural community of Tangiwai
August 2012 - Mt Tongariro, dormant for more than a century, spews boulders and spreads an ash cloud as it explodes with bright flashes and thunderous booms.
Reuters
