© TVNZ
Mt Tongariro is under a watching brief after a series of small earthquakes was detected under the volcano over the past two weeks.
GNS Science duty volcanologist Michael Rosenberg said the quakes were not connected to the ongoing flurry of seismic activity centred in the Cook Strait and the tremors were no cause for ''undue alarm.''
Fewer than 10 quakes, all under magnitude 1.5, have been recorded on a handful of seismic monitors and are too small to be pinpointed.
''The reason we're paying attention is because of their location and we don't see quakes there very often,'' Rosenberg said.
The volcano erupted for the first time in a century at the Te Maari craters in August last year, followed by another eruption in November and scientists warn the craters could still erupt with little or no warning.
Comment: These "new efforts to increase transparency and build greater confidence" are to be seen in the stunt the US government pulled last week by shutting down its embassies in a swathe of predominantly Muslim countries, massively stepping up its bombing campaigns in several of them, and terrorising its citizens from straying beyond US borders.