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Tūhua/Mayor Island is located approximately 45 km off the NE coast of the North Island of New Zealand. This island was formed by various explosive and effusive volcanic eruptions commonly influenced by magma–water interaction eruption events occurring since the Pleistocene. The wider area of the SW Pacific contains numerous volcanic islands with a similar type of volcanic evolution. Tūhua/Mayor Island should be studied in more detail to understand the underlying volcanic mechanisms and apply this research to other volcanic islands in the SW Pacific. Mayor Island, also known by its indigenous Māori name Tūhua (obsidian in Māori), provides an ideal site for studying current volcanism. The present day island was formed around 150 ka ago and contains several rhyolitic lava-flows from different time periods, pyroclastic-flow deposits generated by small-volume localized eruptions and ignimbrite …