Home to a dozen volcanoes under regular watch, NZ's risk of eruption is ever-present.

Yesterday's blow would've given people on White Island as little as seconds of warning.

Questions being asked over why tourists were allowed at White Island amid elevated risk.

Former Whakatane mayor has slammed the health and safety regulations.

One woman's awful wait for news at the Whakatāne Wharf.

Westpac Rescue Helicopter footage shows an island coated in ash.

New Plymouth residents have been shaken by a short, sharp earthquake this morning.

More than 60 earthquakes have been recorded in the Wairoa District.

The earthquake occurred at a depth of around 25km, within 5km of Porirua.

It turns out there's an exact middle of Middle Earth. Artist Billy Apple just marked it.

New centre already helping us better monitor earthquakes - and could save lives.

A large locked-up North Island fault zone could unleash bottled-up energy in a big quake.

Calmer conditions on White Island has allowed scientists to explore newly-formed features.

One of the closest active faults to Dunedin is not giving up its secrets easily.

Kiwi scientists have helped discover new volcanoes beneath the Pacific Ocean.

The 7.8 Kaikoura Earthquake triggered the most violent shaking ever seen in New Zealand.

A study has revealed lead concentrations in some NZ centres exceed health guidelines.

Scientists have put a recent spate of Central North Island quakes down to long-term tectonic "stretching" rather than worrying volcanic activity.

International scientists have claimed the 7.8 Kaikoura quake has raised the potential threat of another large NZ event - but a Kiwi scientist says that's unlikely.

A Kiwi scientist has unexpectedly discovered what appears to be a huge undersea volcanic eruption near the main island of Tonga.

Scientists have found an intriguing new way to peer into the fiery belly of New Zealand's hottest island.

INTERACTIVE: Dams created by landslides in this month's 7.8 quake have been pin-pointed on a detailed new map created by GNS Science and Environment Canterbury.

The spectacular eruption of a geyser near the shores of Lake Rotorua comes as scientists are discovering new insights into the city's famous geothermal backdrop.

Scientists working in North Canterbury have captured incredible images showing the fractures in the landscape wrought by this month's 7.8 Kaikoura Earthquake.

By noon today, scientists had recorded nearly 5000 aftershocks from last Monday's big shake. But what are aftershocks and what can they tell us? Jamie Morton explains.

A pumice raft spotted by a Royal New Zealand Air Force crew has pointed to a possible major undersea eruption somewhere in the Tonga-Kermadec volcanic arc.

Monday's 7.8 quake was bafflingly complex in some ways, but simple in others. Science reporter Jamie Morton delved into the data to look at what we know so far.

The probability of another 7.0-plus quake striking have fallen further, GeoNet reported today, but large aftershocks are still likely across a large area of New Zealand.

Scientists have revealed the extent of uplift on the South Island's northeastern coast - observing that in some places the land was raised by two metres.

The probability of another plus-7 magnitude quake within the next month has fallen - but the chances of multiple large aftershocks remains a virtual certainty.