Taupo (Oruanui eruption) vs Yellowstone (Lava Creek eruption)

Taupo (Oruanui eruption)
The Oruanui eruption of New Zealand's Taupo volcano was the world's largest known eruption in the past 70,000 years, with a Volcanic Explosivity Index of 8. It occurred around 24,500 BC in the Late Pleistocene and generated approximately 430 km³ of pyroclastic fall deposits, 320 km³ of pyroclastic density current (PDC) deposits (mostly ignimbrite) and 420 km³ of primary intracaldera material, equivalent to 530 km³ of magma. The explosive force of this eruption would be greater than the combined power of all the nuclear weapons ever created by man. The eruption is divided into 10 phases on the basis of nine mappable fall units and a tenth, poorly preserved but volumetrically dominant fall unit.

Modern Lake Taupo partly fills the caldera generated during this eruption; a 140 km² structural collapse area is concealed beneath the lake, while the lake outline reflects coeval peripheral and volcano-tectonic collapse. Early eruption phases saw shifting vent positions; development of the caldera to its maximum extent (indicated by lithic lag breccias) occurred during phase 10.

The Oruanui eruption shows many unusual features; its episodic nature, wide range of depositional conditions in fall deposits of very wide dispersal, and complex interplay of falls and pyroclastic flows.

Tephra from the eruption covered much of the central North Island with ignimbrite up to 200 metres deep. Most of New Zealand was affected by ashfall, with even an 18 cm ash layer left on the Chatham Islands, 1,000 km away. Later erosion and sedimentation had long-lasting effects on the landscape, and caused the Waikato River to shift from the Hauraki Plains to its current course through the Waikato to the Tasman Sea.

Yellowstone (Lava Creek eruption)Lava Creek Tuff is a tuff formation created when the Yellowstone Caldera erupted about 640,000 years ago.

The Lava Creek Tuff distributed in a radial pattern around the caldera and is formed of 1,000 cubic kilometres (240 cu mi) of ash in pyroclastic flows.

The tuff has been exposed by erosion at Tuff Cliff along the Gibbon River.

Lava Creek Tuff ranges in color from light-gray to pale red in some locales. Density of the tuff ranges from fine-grained to aphanitic and is densely welded. Thickness of the tuff layer ranges from 180–200 m (590–660 ft).