Mount Tarawera Eruption

The date of the Tarawera eruption and the related circumstances are quite clear. The eruption occurred on June 10th, 1886, at about 3:00 in the morning. The eruption continued for two months. The amount of material erupted, and the mode of eruption were quite spectacular, making Tarawera on of the most important events for volcanology in the twentieth century. there is ample literature available providing further details of this event. One to be particularly recommended is:

"Tarawera: The Volcanic Eruption of 10 June 1886", R.F. Keam, Auckland, 1988.
472 pp.

In this book, there are eye witness accounts as well as photographs of the eruption plus a discussion of the volcanology involved. Another source of well founded information on recent volcanism including Tarawera is:

"Volcanoes of the World", 2nd ed. T. Simkin, L. Siebert, Smithsonian Institution, Geoscience Press, Tucson, AZ., 1994.
349 pp.

This gives a good perspective of global volcanic activity of the last 10.000 years with dates, amount erupted, style of eruption and various other volcanological information for all major NZ volcanoes. Another book with a discussion of Tarawera is:

"Volcanoes: A Global Perspective" P. Francis, Oxford University Press, 1993.
443 pp.

A fine painting of the eruption is to be found in:

"Les Feux de la Terre, Histoires de Volcans"
M. Krafft,
Gallimard, Paris, 1991.
208 pp.

The painting in question can be found on p. 20. There also is a English language version of this work available from Harry N. Abrams Inc. Publishers with the title being "Volcanoes: Fire from Earth".