Alan Hogg, Colin J.N. Wilson, David J. Lowe, Chris Stewart MacGregor Turney , Paul White, Andrew Lorrey, Sturt Manning, Jonathan Palmer, Sarah Bury, Julie Brown

The Taupo eruption deposit is an isochronous marker bed that spans much of New Zealand’s North Island and pre-dates human arrival. Holdaway et al. (2018, Nature Comms 9, 4110) propose that the current Taupo eruption date is inaccurate and that the eruption occurred “…decades to two centuries…” after the published wiggle-match estimate of 232 ± 10 CE (2 s.d.) derived from a tanekaha (Phyllocladus trichomanoides) tree at the Pureora buried forest site. HDK18 propose that trees growing at Pureora (and other near-source areas) that were killed and buried by the climactic ignimbrite event were affected by 14C-depleted (magmatic) CO2. HDK18’s proposal utilises a wide range of published 14C data, but their work results in assertions that are implausible.