As part of our focus on natural disasters we are about to discover more about volcanoes. We have many extinct or dormant volcanoes around Auckland and one of these is Mangere Mountain, which is not very far from our school. Today we were the first group who headed out to find out more about volcanoes and to study one in situ. It was a wonderful experience and we learned about craters, lava bombs, fire fountains, scoria, basalt, etc.
On our arrival, Farrel, talked to us about volcanoes and how they are formed. He told us about the structure of a volcano and told us that Auckland has 50 extinct or dormant volcanoes. We learned that the youngest volcano is Rangitito which is 500 years old. The displays in the education centre were hands-on and interesting too.
As we walked with our knowledgeable guide, he pointed out many things along the way. We all managed to scale up to the top of the mountain from where we were able to see a number of other volcanoes including Mt Eden, One Tree Hill, Mt Albert, Rangitoto and Mt Wellington.
Mangere Mountain has two craters, littered with lava bombs that formed into various rock shapes such as the 'bread crust", the "cow pat", the lens and the ribbon.
We thoroughly enjoyed exploring this fascinating mountain and were intrigued by all we saw.
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