Lake Taupo Earthquake: Public told to stay away from tsunami damage

Lake elevation at Four Mile Bay in Taupe after the earthquake. Video / Dan Hutchinson

Taupe District Council is asking people to stay away from the water’s edge at a popular lakeside reserve while it works to determine why some 20 meters of foreshore disappeared during a series of earthquakes this week.

“Hi guys, we know you are interested in what happened at Wariwaka but we have serious concerns about the settlement of the land there. We estimate that we have lost about 20 meters of foreshore,” the council said in a Facebook post.

Other agencies are investigating the cause, but it may have been the result of a landslide with the result of a wave on the lake, not a wave alone.

“Our team is working on putting together temporary fencing but in the meantime, to keep everyone safe in this area, we ask that you keep yourself, your children and your vehicles off the edge. Thank you.”

They have now closed the road closest to the water at 4 Mile Bay, Wharewaka, because people have been driving to the edge, said Greg Hadley, Taupo County Council’s director of parks operations.

There were cracks running parallel to the shore indicating that the area was unstable and that the weight of vehicles could cause further collapse.

GNS Science has been studying the area to try and figure out what happened, including putting drones in the air.

“We just said to them, ‘When you come up with an idea of ​​what happened, tell us,'” Hadley said.

He said there was anecdotal evidence around other areas of the lake, including Korotao at the southern end, to suggest that a large wave or waves had come several meters more than usual on the foreshore, but so far, the heaviest damage has been at 4 Mile Bay in Wariwaka. He said the lake level is very high at the moment which likely exacerbated the problem.

Two large four-person canoes, towed on the grass near the erosion area, were torn from their chains, washed away by rocks and wrecked by a wave of water, believed to be a tsunami, during the swarm on Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

GNS Science said the Volcanic Alert Level remains at 1 despite the recent increased activity.

The GNS report found that the 5.6-magnitude earthquake caused ground movement around Lake Taupo.

“At least 100 mm of horizontal movement was observed in an instrument at Horomatangi Reef,” GNS said in its report.

“GNS is conducting further analysis of the existing data and looking at additional observations that can be collected and analyzed.”

More than 350 aftershocks continued to shake Taupo and its surrounding areas after the quake that occurred on Wednesday night.

A surface earthquake of 3.9 km struck 20 km southwest of Taube at 5:37 am today at a depth of 5 km.

This is a #tsunami as measured with @niwa_nz water level gauges at Acacia Bay (near the town of Taupo) and Tukano (southern end of the lake) – see second photo for locations. He is in NZST which is why he seems to come an hour early. https://t.co/W7PfhJFgVl pic.twitter.com/FPScHYSV1n

— Emily Lane (she/it) (@Emily_M_Lane) December 1, 2022

Other tremors were too weak to notice.

The series of tremors continued after a strong 5.6-magnitude earthquake hit the center of the North Island shortly before midnight on Wednesday.

One of the largest aftershocks recorded was the 4.1-magnitude earthquake at 11.47pm on Thursday.

Niwa hydrodynamics scientist Dr. Emily Lynn showed in a tweet the tsunami as measured with water level gauges in Acacia Bay and Tucano.

The most recent M4.1 earthquake at 1:53pm today is the third M4.0+ follow-up since the main shock of M5.6 late yesterday within the volcano’s caldera. Here is the recap and locations of the M4.0+ shock sequence of Taupō volcano for the 2022 episode….so far pic.twitter.com/Ep6gtNRDOP

– Hauraki Gulf Weather (GulfHauraki) December 1, 2022

Lin told the Herald that it was interesting that a tsunami could have been caused by an earthquake of this magnitude.

“With these volcanic earthquakes, it’s going to deform, it’s actually deforming the ground under the lake.”

She referred to the complex Kaikoura earthquake when referring to what it might look like under Lake Taupo at the moment.

During a 7.8-magnitude earthquake in 2016, parts of the ground in Kaikoura shook up several meters because of several fault lines that were activated.

Although it may not be as severe under Lake Taupo, a land change is what could have caused the wave.

Lake Rise at Four Mile Bay in Taupo after the earthquake destroyed boats and damaged the foreshore. Photo/Dan Hutchinson

However, Lin said the tsunami was larger than scientists had expected given the magnitude of the quake that occurred on Wednesday night.

“One of the interesting things is that for an earthquake of this magnitude, in terms of generating tsunamis, that’s very small.

“We kind of think that maybe the amount of movement you got was more than you would expect for an earthquake of this magnitude.”

Lin said she and her team are very interested in speaking with locals who saw more inundation (a very high tide line) around Taupo so they can continue to gather the science about last night’s earthquake.

GeoNet is still wondering if the wave was a tsunami at all.

In a post on its website, it says researchers are “still looking at evidence of a possible earthquake or small tsunami” that occurred in the lake previously.

“At this point, we don’t know if this is caused by a sich, where the lake moves back and forth and ‘drifts’, a tsunami, caused by a landslide, or a combination of both,” GeoNet wrote.

Lake elevation at Four Mile Bay in Taupe after the earthquake. Photo/Dan Hutchinson

Taupō Pedal Boats owners Jess Ratana and Kiribiti Bowden were at the lake’s edge Thursday morning pulling the two four-person boats off the rocks with a four-wheel drive.

Ratana said they were lucky that all their bicycles were intact, but the big boats were the only pedals they had.

“We pulled them out last week because of the wind. It was really windy here. They were on the grass, they weren’t near the water at all.

“He just pulled them and the direction of the wind took them like that and they ended up smashing them against the rocks.”

She said they are insured.

“It’s not something we thought was going to happen—an earthquake, a tsunami, a lake. I don’t think anyone was expecting that.”

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