The Banks Peninsula Volcano is an extinct volcanic complex to the east of Christchurch on New Zealand's South Island.

[2] While the volcano is highly eroded it still forms the majority of Banks Peninsula with a highest point of 919 m (3,015 ft).

[4] The Christchurch earthquakes led to rumors of a possible eruption, however, there is no known magma chamber beneath the volcano and there has not been any sign of volcanic activity in the last 5 million years.

[7] Also the Cretaceous Mount Somers volcanics occur throughout Canterbury including Banks Peninsula resulting in adjacent volcanics say near McQueens Valley having very different ages being rhyolites at 98.0 ± 1.2 million years ago[1] and basaltic and trachytic lava flows at 11.59 ± 0.08 million years ago.

This implies that the mechanism of formation is connected to the lithosphere unlike some other intraplate volcanoes such as the Hawaii island chain, which are rooted in the asthenosphere.

If large sections of this already thin lithosphere sank into the asthenosphere, it would be replaced with hotter rock leading to decompression melting.

[10] The large mass of resistant volcanic rock that now makes up Banks Peninsula has significantly controlled the shape of the Canterbury Plains.