One of the most consistently highly explosive eruptive centers in all of Oceania is a volcano that few people have ever heard of. Located within New Zealand, most of this volcano's eruptions have reached at least a volcanic explosivity index of 4 during the last 10,000 years. I am not referring to Taupo, Ruapehu or Okataina. Instead, I am referring to an island volcano known as Raoul Island. Thumbnail Photo Credit: Google Earth, Image Landsat / Copernicus, Image © 2025 CNES / Airbus. This image was overlaid with text, and then overlaid with GeologyHub made graphics (the image border & the GeologyHub logo). A special thanks to the Extreme Pursuit YouTube channel for granting me permission to use clips of his footage! Video Sources from the Extreme Pursuit YouTube channel: [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_050wb69Y4 Subscribe to Extreme Pursuit at: https://www.youtube.com/@ExtremePursuit If you would like to support this channel, consider using one of the following links: (Patreon: http://patreon.com/geologyhub) (YouTube membership: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYeGh5VML5XPr5jYnzh3J6g/join) (Gemstone & Mineral Etsy store: http://prospectingarizona.etsy.com) (GeologyHub Merch Etsy store: http://geologyhub.etsy.com) Google Earth imagery used in this video: ©Google & Data Providers This video is protected under "fair use". If you see an image and/or video which is your own in this video, and/or think my discussion of a scientific paper (and/or discussion/mentioning of the data/information within a scientific paper) does not fall under the fair use doctrine, and wish for it to be censored or removed, contact me by email at [email protected] and I will make the necessary changes. Various licenses used in sections of this video (not the entire video, this video as a whole does not completely fall under one of these licenses) and/or in this video's thumbnail image (and this list does not include every license used in this video and/or thumbnail image): Public Domain: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/ CC BY 3.0 NZ: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/nz/legalcode Sources/Citations: [1] Geonet (New Zealand) [2] Ian E.M. Smith, Robert B. Stewart, Richard C. Price, Timothy J. Worthington, Are arc-type rocks the products of magma crystallisation? Observations from a simple oceanic arc volcano: Raoul Island, Kermadec Arc, SW Pacific, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, Volume 190, Issues 1–2, 2010, Pages 219-234, ISSN 0377-0273, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2009.05.006. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0377027309002091) [3] Tim J Worthington, Murray R Gregory, Vladislav Bondarenko, The Denham Caldera on Raoul Volcano: dacitic volcanism in the Tonga–Kermadec arc, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, Volume 90, Issues 1–2, 1999, Pages 29-48, ISSN 0377-0273, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0377-0273(99)00018-9. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0377027399000189) [4] Source of Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) methodology and criteria: Newhall, C. G., and Self, S. (1982), The volcanic explosivity index (VEI) an estimate of explosive magnitude for historical volcanism, J. Geophys. Res., 87(C2), 1231–1238, doi:10.1029/JC087iC02p01231. Accessed / Read by Youtube.com/GeologyHub on Oct 5th, 2022. [5] VEIs, dates/years, composition, tephra layer name, DRE estimates, and bulk tephra volume estimates for volcanic eruptions shown in this video which were assigned a VEI 4 or larger are sourced from the LaMEVE database (British Geological Survey © UKRI), https://www2.bgs.ac.uk/vogripa/view/controller.cfc?method=lameve, Used with Permission 0:00 Highly Explosive Volcanoes 1:56 New Zealand Volcanoes 2:20 Raoul Island 2:54 Geologic History 4:05 1st Major Eruption 4:44 2nd Major Eruption 5:40 Recent Eruptions