QM7 Taranaki
The Taranaki 1:250,000 geological map includes the Taranaki Peninsula, southern King Country, Wanganui and northern Manawatu areas, and the western part of the Central North Island volcanic plateau.Basement rocks are exposed only in a small area in the northeast; most of the map area is underlain by Neogene sedimentary rocks or Quaternary volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks. The andesite stratovolcanoes of the Egmont and Ruapehu volcanic centres dominate the landscape in the west and east, respectively. Well-preserved flights of middle to late Quaternary marine terraces border much of the coastline and are in places overlain by extensive dune fields.
The Sugar Loaf Islands, just offshore from New Plymouth, are the only offshore islands within the map area.
The Taranaki map area includes the Egmont Volcanic Centre on the Taranaki Peninsula and part of the Tongariro Volcanic Centre of the Central North Island, both primarily andesitic in composition.
The Egmont Volcanic Centre includes the severely eroded Sugar Loaf Islands and Paritutu (c. 1.8 Ma), Kaitake (c. 600 ka), Pouakai (c. 250 ka) and Egmont (c. 130 ka), as well as young satellite vents and cumulodomes. The last known eruption from Egmont Volcano was in 1755 AD. The part of the Tongariro Volcanic Centre mapped here includes the Ruapehu Group andesite lavas, the oldest of which is c. 250 ka, and several other andesitic satellite vents dating back to c. 1.2 Ma. The last eruption of Mt Ruapehu was in 2007.