Vulcanicity and vegetation in the Rotorua district: Ash beds and soils in the Rotorua district

[First paragraph...]
During the Late Quaternary, volcanic eruptions of the explosive or paroxysmal type (Taylor, 1953) occurred in the central North Island about centres, which for convenience, are designated Okataina, Waitahanui, Maroa, and Tokaanu (Fig. 1). The resulting ejectamenta formed thick layered beds largely of rhyolitic pumice. Most is known about the distribution of beds from the Okataina and Waitahanui eruptive centres where named beds have been mapped in the Rotorua, Bay of Plenty, and Gisborne districts (Vucetich and Pullar, in press). Little is known about the Maroa and Tokaanu centres except that they are considered to have been important contributors earlier in the Holocene and that they were also active contemporaneously with the Taupo Pumice eruptions.