Pukewairiki

File:Pukekiwiriki crater panorama.jpg

Pukewairiki tuff crater.

File:Pukekiwiriki tuff layers.JPG

Eroding tuff layers with embedded basaltic rock, Pukewairiki.

Pukewairiki is one of the volcanoes in the Auckland Volcanic Field. It has an explosion crater around 500 m wide, and tuff ring up to 30 m high, which has been eroded away on the south-western side. The northern side had a terrace eroded into at a time of higher sea-level during the Last Interglacial and thus the volcano is older than 130,000 yrs. In the past it has erroneously been called Pukekiwiriki, which is the name for Red Hill, Papakura.

References

• City of Volcanoes: A geology of Auckland - Searle, Ernest J.; revised by Mayhill, R.D.; Longman Paul, 1981. First published 1964. ISBN 0-582-71784-1.
• Volcanoes of Auckland: The Essential guide - Hayward, B.W., Murdoch, G., Maitland, G.; Auckland University Press, 2011.