No latest activity reported for Macauley Island.

Below is a summary of eruption dates and Volcanic Explosivity Indices (VEI).

The following references are the sources used for data regarding this volcano. References are linked directly to our volcano data file. Discussion of another volcano or eruption (sometimes far from the one that is the subject of the manuscript) may produce a citation that is not at all apparent from the title. Additional discussion of data sources can be found under Volcano Data Criteria.

Latter J H, Lloyd E F, Smith I E M, Nathan S, 1992. Volcanic hazards in the Kermadec Islands, and at submarine volcanoes between southern Tonga and New Zealand. {New Zeal Ministry Civil Defense, Volc Hazards Inf Ser}, 4: 1-45

Lloyd E F, Nathan S, Smith I E M, Stewart R B, 1996. Volcanic history of Macauley Island, Kermedec Ridge, New Zealand. {New Zeal J Geol Geophys}, 39: 295-308

NIWA/NOAA Vents Program, 2005. New Zealand American submarine ring of fire 2005 Kermadec arc submarine volcanoes. New Zeal Nat Inst Water Atmosph Res/NOAA Vents Program final cruise report (http://www.oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/05fire/logs/leg2_summary/media/srof05_cruisereport_final.pdf)

Smith I E M, Stewart R B, Price R C, 2003. The petrology of a large intra-oceanic silicic eruption: the Sandy Bay Tephra, Kermadec arc, southwest Pacific. {J Volc Geotherm Res}, 124: 173-194

Wright I C, Worthington T J, Gamble J A, 2006. New multibeam mapping and geochemistry of the 30°-35° S sector, and overview, of southern Kermadec arc volcanism. {J Volc Geotherm Res}, 149: 263-296

Macauley Island is a remnant of the rim of a large submarine caldera centered 8 km to the NW. The 3-km-wide island consists of a low, gently sloping surface of rhyolitic pumice from the caldera-forming eruption truncated by steep cliffs formed of underlying basaltic lava flows. The pre-caldera Macauley volcano consisted of two generations of shield volcanoes separated by a period of growth of a pyroclastic cone. Eruption of the voluminous Sandy Bay Tuff about 6300 years ago truncated the NW side of the Annexation shield volcano and formed a 12-km-wide, 1.1-km deep caldera during one of the largest eruptions identified in the SW Pacific. Following formation of the caldera and substantial marine erosion, a partly submarine and partly subaerial eruption centered about 2 km north of present-day Macauley Island produced basaltic scoriae and lava flows. A reported possible eruption from "Brimstone Island," 45 km west of Macauley at a location with a depth of about 2000 m and SW of Giggenbach submarine volcano, is likely a location error and could refer to an eruption from the submarine flank of Macauley caldera (Lloyd et al., 1996).