Champagne Pool - one of the largest craters in Way-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland south of Rotorua.
The crater is about 60 meters deep and has surface area of about 2000 square meters. Water temerature is 70-75 degrees C. Orange color of the surface is because of variuos sulphides and other minerals.
The following information is from www.geyserland.co.nz website:
Wai-O-Tapu is associated with volcanic activity dating back about 160,000 years and is located right on the edge of the largest volcanic caldera (depression) within the active Taupo Volcanic Zone. It is an area associated with the immense pressures attributable to the Indian – Australian Plate rising and overlapping the Pacific Plate causing a fault line which enables heat from below the earth’s crust to radiate upwards towards the surface and form geothermal features. In basic terms beneath the ground at Wai-O-Tapu is a system of streams which are heated by magma left over from earlier eruptions. The water is so super heated that it absorbs the minerals out of the rocks through which it passes and conveys them to the surface as steam where they are ultimately absorbed into the ground. The wide range of colours are all natural and are due to different mineral elements. The uniqueness of the landscape is essentially attributed to land alteration through Steam discharge, Acid-sulphate water and Alkali-chloride water.