ZLL/0116

Frying Pan Lake

Lake

Lake in Echo Crater, which was formed by the 1886 Tarawera eruption, it is one of the worlds largest hot pools, 38,000 square metres in area and fed by numerous acid springs.

Yes (what does this mean?)

Via park(s): Rotomahana Conservation Area; Waimangu Scenic Reserve

0.296km

Descriptive name for the thermal hot pool. It has a flat floor mainly about six metres deep. The temperature is generally between 45-55 degrees Celsius. The area was previously a flat sediment deposit area known as Frying Pan Flat. The 1917 eruption destroyed the flat and the hollow that occupied it filled with thermal and rain water becoming known as Frying Pan Lake. Many features in the Waimangu Valley Thermal Area have been named and publicised by the local tourism industry in order to sound more attractive to the tourist. Ron Keam Assoc Professor of Physics at Auckland University, published a scientific paper on "Bathymetric Survey of the Waimangu Thermal Lakes", in 1980. Keam assisted in the research of the correct names for the area. The Frying Pan Flat that preceded the lake (c.1917 eruption) was named as the flat had shallow pools, gas and steam escaping through these pools produced the sound and appearance of a "busy frying pan."

• [ZLP/BP-0035] Waimangu Scenic Reserve

Bay of Plenty

Rotorua District

In or near Te Arawa, Tūhoe country

NZTM2000: 1896951, 5757255

RF81er