Ever since its creation by the retreat of a huge glacier at the end of the last ice age, Lake Ohau has been gradually filling up with sediments washed down from the nearby mountain ranges. This is the view looking north from the lake, up towards the Dobson Valley. The valley profile has the classic […]
Lake Ohau Sediments Read More »
Lake Ohau is one of several very large lakes in the Southern Alps that fill valleys once carved out by huge glaciers during the Ice Age. As the ice retreated, it left spectacular and classic landforms in its wake, including concentric lines of moraines, erratic boulders, ‘U’ shaped valleys and extensive outwash plains. The rapid
Beryllium-10 dating of moraines around Lake Ohau Read More »
The recent magnitude 6.5 Cook Strait and 6.6 Lake Grassmere earthquakes were comparable in size to the ‘quakes that rattled Canterbury in 2010 and 2011. This map of peak ground accelerations for the Lake Grassmere Earthquake shows recordings of up to about 0.75g.(or 0.75 the acceleration due to gravity). One of the notorious and extremely
Liquefaction Effects from the Cook Strait / Lake Grassmere Quakes Read More »
Dougal Townsend of GNS Science was part of a team that flew over Marlborough to assess the impact of the recent earthquakes on the landscape and infrastructure. Although relatively minor compared to those that impacted the Christchurch area in 2010 and 2011, there were nonetheless some isolated, but significant effects. All these photos were taken
Earthquake impacts in Marlborough seen from the air Read More »
Following the earthquakes in southern cook straight, the GeoNet rapid response team left immediately to place seismometers around the area, to allow more detailed monitoring and get better information with which to model the fault ruptures. This meant that when the Mag 6.6 occurred, the enhanced array of seismometers was already in place. Here is
Lake Grassmere Quakes Read More »
This is a screen shot of the Wellington seismometer from very early on Monday morning 22 July Following the earthquakes in Cook Strait over the weekend, it was impressive to arrive at work on Monday morning, and watch how the GeoNet team, many of whom had been busy right through the weekend, were in full
Earthquakes in Southern Cook Strait Read More »
Photo: J.Thomson The windswept coastline between Wellington Harbour and Palliser Bay forms the southern tip of the Rimutaka Ranges. These hills themselves are an extension of the axial ranges that stretch the length of the North Island. This is the view east from Baring Head towards Turakirae Head. In good weather, this rugged environment isthe
Another great geological venue on the South Taranaki coast is at the Opunake boat ramp, where we took our Geocamp participants recently. On two sides of the car park there are cliffs showing a spectacular sequence of strata. information for you to visit this spot is on our GeoTrips website here: www.geotrips.org.nz/trip.html?id=56 It’s a perfect
The South Coast of Taranaki near Hawera has extensive rocky beaches lined by high crumbling cliffs. It is a great place for geology, but you should be wary of the potential for cliff falls, especially after rain. This is the view east from the Ohawe beach access point. A first look at the cliff from
Waihi Beach Taranaki Read More »
Over the last two weeks, GNS Science, with support from the Todd Foundation, the Royal Society of New Zealand, and Puke Ariki Museum in New Plymouth, has been running a hands on immersion geology course for teachers and years 7 to 9 students from 5 Taranaki schools. 24 students and about 10 teachers participated in
Power of the Planet Geocamp in Taranaki Read More »