Fluid Dynamics

Mt Taranaki (2,518m / 8,261ft)

“Taranaki” is a Maori word born of legend and is the name of a snow-capped volcano.

The Taranaki legend
According to the Maori legend, Taranaki was one of a group of volcanoes, which includes the 1968-metre-high Tongariro, near the centre of the North Island.
Taranaki was forced to leave rather hurriedly when Tongariro caught him with the beautiful Pihanga, the volcano near Lake Taupo who was Tongariro’s lover.
Tongariro exploded in anger, spitting fire, lava and burning ash and causing the very earth to rumble and shake.
Taranaki fled to the coast, where he was stopped by the sea at Wanganui. He continued fleeing, in a new northwesterly direction, to where he now stands in majestic, if lonely, isolation.

Also known as Mt Egmont, Captain Cook named it Mount Egmont after John Perceval, 2nd Earl of Egmont, the First Lord of the Admiralty who promoted Cook’s first voyageit is 2,518m at its peak.

It is surrounded by the Egmont National Park covering 33,534 hectares, and is the source of 50 rivers and streams, it is a botanically unique area containing a wide variety of vegetation from sub-tropical semi-coastal forests in the Kaitake Ranges through to sub-alpine herb fields at 1,800m on the main cone.

Geology
Mount Taranaki (2,518m) and Fanthams Peak (1,692m) comprise the volcano, which is the youngest of four Taranaki volcanic centres.

Paritutu and Sugar Loaf Islands/Nga Motu are a spine of lava pushed up from a volcano and have been dated to 1.75 million years.

The Kaitake Range was the next volcano to form and volcanic activity began 500,000 years ago. The Pouakai Range volcanic activity began about 250,000 years ago, and 120,000 years ago the Taranaki volcano was formed and is where nearly all volcanic activity in Taranaki has occurred since. The last evidence of volcanic activity on the mountain occurred around 1755, more than 250 years ago

http://www.mttaranaki.co.nz/