[4] Lake Taupō is in a caldera created mainly by a supervolcanic eruption which occurred approximately 25,600 years ago.

The caldera later filled with water to form Lake Taupō, eventually overflowing to cause a huge outburst flood.

Possible climatic effects of the eruption would have been concentrated on the Southern Hemisphere due to the southerly position of Lake Taupō.

Underwater hydrothermal activity continues near the Horomatangi vent,[11] and nearby geothermal fields with associated hot springs are found north and south of the lake, for example at Rotokawa and Tūrangi.

[13] Much of the watershed of Lake Taupō is a beech and podocarp forest with associate understory ferns being Blechnum filiforme, Asplenium flaccidum, Doodia media, Hymenophyllum demissum, Microsorum pustulatum and Dendroconche scandens, and some prominent associate shrubs being Olearia rani and Alseuosmia quercifolia.

[18] On the north-west side of Lake Taupō on the cliffs of Mine Bay, there are Māori rock carvings created in the late 1970s by Matahi Whakataka-Brightwell and John Randall.

Carved in the likeness of Ngātoro-i-rangi, a navigator who guided the Tūwharetoa and Te Arawa tribes to the Taupō area over a thousand years ago according to Māori legend.

Lake Taupō is a taonga (treasure or something special to the person) of Ngāti Tūwharetoa from the Te Arawa waka.

[20] Lake Taupō previously housed a Ngāti Tūwharetoa village known as Te Rapa near the springs of Maunga Kākaramea.

It was covered in a landslide on 7 May 1846 which killed 60 people, including the iwi's chief Mananui Te Heuheu Tūkino II.