The central Taupo Volcanic Zone is a region of intense Quaternary silicic volcanism accompanying rapid crustal extension.
Modem central TVZ is the most frequently active and productive silicic volcanic system on Earth, erupting rhyolite at c.
0.28 m' s'. The rhyolites show no major compositional changes with time, but the total extent of magma chamber zonation
has changed with the advent of rifting and crustal extension at c.0.7 Ma. At least 34 caldera-forming ignimbrite eruptions
have formed a complex sequence of relatively short-lived, nested and/or overlapping volcanic centres in central TVZ.
Taupo contrasts with other large silicic magmatic systems in the exceptionally high frequency, but small size, of caldera- forming eruptions. This contrast reflects the thin, rifted nature of the TVZ crust, that precludes the development of long- term magmatic cycles at Taupo.Within central TVZ, non-rhyolitic compositions have been erupted apparently irregularly
in time and space; in particular there is no evidence for a geographic separation of basalts from andesites. TVZ is a rifted
arc, but its segmented nature, high thermal flux and voluminous rhyolitic volcanism make it unique on Earth.