On 10th June 1886, exactly 125 years ago today, Mount Tarawera erupted briefly and violently, resulting in the disappearance of the Pink and White Terraces of Rotomahana, and devastation of the landscape. The former lake disappeared and was slowly replaced by the much larger and deeper lake which remains to this day. This 1880 Charles […]
The White Terraces Reappear after 125 years Read More »
There has been a lot of ongoing scientific work recenlty to assess Christchurch’s future geological risks. In our latest video Vaughan Stagpoole explains the esoteric arts of Geophysics and what the surveys can help us to find out.
Christchurch Geophysical Surveys Read More »
The blasts from the seismic survey were detectable by GeoNet as very small local ground tremors along the seismic line last week: PRELIMINARY EARTHQUAKE REPORT GNS SCIENCE
Shooting the SAHKE Seismic Survey across the North Island Read More »
About a dozen field teams have been out over the weekend deploying geophones along the 90 kilometre transect of the SAHKE seismic survey. The first photo shows some of the Orica contractors loading and priming one of the transect shot holes. 500 kilogrammes of explosive emulsion is being pumped down a 50m bore hole. The
SAHKE – Seismic Array Hikurangi Experiment Read More »
Ever since 1855, when New Zealand’s largest ever recorded earthquake (magnitude 8.1) shook the Wellington Region, a lot of effort has gone into understanding the earthquake risk in and around New Zealand’s capital city. There are several large fault lines in the area, including the Wellington Fault. This is the most active fault of the
Wellington’s Stuck Plate Boundary Read More »
In this video Garth Archibald explains the use of a laser to monitor rockfall hazards in built up areas around Christchurch City: In the second video, Chris Massey analyses rock fall trajectories in the Port Hills to calculate future risks to housing:
Videos of Christchurch Rockfall Research Read More »
There are a number of urgent scientific studies being carried out around Christchurch to help inform decision makers involved in the repair and recovery process following the recent earthquakes. These projects are being co-ordinated under the Natural Hazards Research Platform which is a collaboration of many of New Zealand’s research institutions (universities and Crown Research
Canterbury Gravity Survey Read More »
Today I have been in the Port Hills of Christchurch with Chris Massey, an engineering geologist in the GNS Science Active Landscapes team. Chris is part of a team undertaking a detailed study of the rockfalls that have been triggered in and around Christchurch as a result of the recent earthquakes. The aim of his
Rockfall impacts from the Christchurch ‘Quake Read More »
This week I have been with Garth Archibald, surveying areas in Christchurch that have been affected by rockfalls and slips. These surveys provide data which is used to calculate the stability of cliffs and slopes, and this provides useful information to planners and geotechnical engineers. At Redcliffs, Garth set up his laser scanner to make
Rockfalls and slips in Christchurch Read More »
Our expedtion to explore the hydrothermal activity and mineralisation of the Kermadec arc volcanoes is now over. We arrived back in Auckland yesterday, after a successful three week research cruise. Amongst the discoveries that were made were areas of present day and ancient hydrothermal activity, relatively fresh lava flows from previously uninvestigated volcanic craters, and
Kermadec Arc Videos Read More »