In 2013, scientists from Auckland University said new studies showed Rangitoto had been much more active in the past than previously thought, suggesting it had been active on and off for around 1000 years before the final eruptions around 550 years ago (BP= before 1950). In February 2014 a deep hole was drilled through the western flank of Rangitoto. The same group of university scientists declared that it revealed a long history of spasmodic eruptions going back at least 6000 years, although the bulk of activity post-dated 650 years. Civil Defence officials said the discovery did not make living in Auckland any more dangerous, but did change their view of how an eruption might proceed. These headline-grabbing results have been controversial and not accepted by all geologists. In 2018, most of the original group of Auckland University geologists reported on their latest research and reinterpretation of the drillhole sequence and pronounced that the island did not erupt off and on prior to its major eruption about 600 years ago and is not a unique polygenetic volcano in the monogenetic Auckland volcanic field, as they had previously inferred. While it is possible that Rangitoto buried one or more smaller volcanoes, to date there is no strong evidence to support this idea.