It has numerous hot springs, geysers, and fumaroles; its last eruption, which took place in December 2019, claimed the lives of 21 individuals. Whakaari/White Island is uninhabited, but it was accessible for tourists by charter launch from Tauranga (52 miles southwest) and by helicopter.
How was whakaari formed?
Whakaari/White Island is currently New Zealand’s most active cone volcano, sitting 48 kilometres offshore. The cone has been built up by continuous volcanic activity over the past 150,000 years. … Captain James Cook named the island White Island in 1769.
Is White Island still active?
Whakaari/White Island is New Zealand’s most continuously active and largest volcano by volume. … Whakaari/White Island has been active for at least 150,000 years, It is a stratovolcano, (composite cone volcano) made of layers of andesite lava flows and pyroclastic deposits (tephra).