Three of fortynine

Sunday morning started with two boys waking me even earlier than I am used to and declining to return to sleep. Whispering loudly enough to be heard in my room as well, and rapidly whispering became giggling and talking. S, who is feeling better, volunteered to mind them so I could lie in (having been up in the night to them both for one reason or another). As it was now my time for waking, sleep was beyond me so I went out on a run.

And gained the reward of a magnificent sunrise behind three of Auckland's 49 volcanoes, when seen from the Wynyard Quarter. They are just a small part of what is called the Auckland Volcanic Field.

This is an area of about 360 km2 centred on Auckland city. During the 250,000 years of their history, Auckland's volcanoes have totally changed the Auckland landscape. Volcanoes in Auckland include small cones less than 150 m in height and explosion craters. The type of volcanic activity in Auckland means each eruption has occurred at a new location; these are coming from a single active 'hot spot' of magma about 100 km below the city. Many of the volcanoes today have been quarried or become public parks. Auckland's existing volcanoes are unlikely to become active again, but the Auckland Volcanic Field itself is young and still active.

The most recent eruption was Rangitoto (the largest and most distant of these three cones), about 600 years ago. Of all Auckland's eruptions, Rangitoto was the only one witnessed by people. The eruption would have been extremely violent, as the lava came into contact with sea water. Rangitoto alone produced a volume of lava equal to that erupted by the rest of the volcanoes in the volcanic field.

(Backblipped on Monday due to forgetting to take my SDHC Memory Adaptor north with me yesterday.)

ADDITIONAL: I liked another shot I took while watching the sunrise, although I deferred to S, as I should. More so, because without her managing the boys I would have missed the sunrise. It is in my blipfolio.