Volcanologists are assessing White Island's volcano's eruptive potential this morning, after the volcano's steam eruption yesterday morning.

A white plume of steam was seen from the coast climbing several kilometres into the air over the island during the ten minute eruption at 10.23am on Tuesday.

White Island erupted at 10.23am on Tuesday. Left – The crater at 10am today.

'The activity at White has been very quiet overnight and essentially since the eruption yesterday,” says GNS duty volcanologist Nico Fournier today.

The volcano's activity is back to what it was before the eruption, says Nico.

'There's no indication at this stage that the eruption yesterday was leading to something bigger. We can't exclude a more sudden eruption with no warning, but if that does happen it will probably be about the same size.”

Scientists are meeting this morning to assess the situation and whether the aviation alert level and threat level is changed will depend on the outcome of the meeting, says Nico.

GeoNet reports the current volcanic alert level is two meaning minor eruptive activity while the aviation code remains at orange after being downgraded from red yesterday afternoon.

White Island is New Zealand's largest active volcano. The crater rim is 321m above sea level, but the volcano stands in water more than 600m deep on the eastern side, which drops off into the 1500m deep White Island canyon.

The volcano has demonstrated continual low level activity and small eruptions since human settlement in New Zealand. From 1975 until 2001 there were frequent small eruptions making it the island's most active period in hundreds of years.

Ash and gas plumes rose as high as 10km, lava bombs and blocks were thrown into the sea and occasionally the glow of red hot rock was visible at night from the Bay of Plenty coast.

The island is uninhabited, about 2km in diameter and 48 km from Whakatane. It marks the northern end of the Taupo Volcanic Zone.

The island's crater floor is less than 30m above sea level. Scientists say the volcano has been active for at least 150,000 years, It is a stratovolcano, a composite cone volcano made of layers of andesite lava flows and pyroclastic deposits.

Gases dissolved in the magma escape and rise towards the surface where they mix with, and heat groundwater beneath the crater floor. This produces fumaroles, and the white steam/gas cloud which is usually present above White Island. The acidic cloud can sting the eyes and skin, affect breathing and damage equipment and clothes.

Sulphur mining occurred at intervals from the 1880's until the 1930's and the remains of a factory can be seen on the island. Eleven miners were killed by a debris avalanche in 1914, when part of the crater rim collapsed.