Purchas Hill
Volcano in the Auckland volcanic field, New Zealand
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Purchas Hill (also Te Tauoma) is one of the volcanoes in the Auckland volcanic field.
| Purchas Hill | |
|---|---|
| Te Tauoma | |
Quarried remnant of Purchas Hill, with Maungarei / Mount Wellington in the background | |
| Highest point | |
| Coordinates | 36°53′14″S 174°50′51″E |
| Geography | |
.png)  Purchas Hill Purchas Hill's location within New Zealand. | |
| Location | Stonefields, Auckland, New Zealand |
| Geology | |
| Volcanic field | Auckland volcanic field |
Purchas Hill was a twin-cratered scoria cone around 50 metres high, located north of Maungarei / Mount Wellington, before it was predominantly quarried away. The scoria cone sat in the middle of its large explosion crater with a surrounding tuff ring. It erupted about 10,000 years ago, shortly before the eruption of its larger neighbour, Mount Wellington.[1]
History
Te Tauoma was the site where the Ngāi Tai descendants of Te Kete-ana-taua lived, often fighting with nearby Ngāi Tāhuhu who lived around Ōtāhuhu / Mount Richmond.[2]
In the mid-1800s, geologist Ferdinand von Hochstetter named the mountain after the Reverend Dr Arthur Guyon Purchas (1821–1906), in gratitude for his help with geological work on the field.[1]
The scant remnants of Purchas Hill lie on what is largely a wasteland in the suburb of Stonefields in Auckland.[3]
The road Purchas Hill Drive is located where Purchas Hill used to be.
