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New Zealanders know by first hand experience that living on top of a plate boundary makes life unpredictable. The recent earthquake in Christchurch was just the latest example of that. I recently had the privilege of interviewing several Kiwis who had experienced first hand the power of a tsunami. Luckily for them they all escaped […]
The GNS Science website now has 10 one page Fact Sheets on the main New Zealand volcanoes. They give details of the landforms, rock types and eruption histories, with colourful images and diagrams.These are great for a school project, or to print off and take with you when you go for a tramp up one
NZ Volcano Fact Sheets Read More »
Cornel de Ronde is the world renowned GNS Science specialist in researching undersea volcanoes and hydrothermal activity. He has made numerous discoveries and had many adventures diving to the ocean floor in submarines of all shapes and sizes.Visitors to Wellington’s Te Papa Museum may recognise him from the “Deep Ride” submarine experience. In 1886 Mount
Lake Rotomahana’s Secret Underworld Read More »
Julia Becker is one of the Social Scientists at GNS Science. Her role is to understand the human response to natural hazards, and she works with other scientists and organisations to help plan for future disasters. I asked her to write a diary of her experiences of working in Christchurch in the week following the
Julia Becker’s Observations following the Darfield Earthquake Read More »
Whilst those of us in Wellington may have felt a short jolt and a bit of a wobble, the 7.1 magnitude earthquake hitting Christchurch on Saturday morning was an altogether different experience for the locals. People I have talked to referred to the noise of the quake as being one of the most powerful aspects
Scientists’ response to the Canterbury Earthquake Read More »
Another place that I visited in Transylvania was the town of Torda, where there is a huge (1200 metre thick) salt deposit that formed about 18 million years ago. The salt can be found forming the sides of a nearby valley where it has been eroded by rainwater into pinnacles. The salt is 99% pure
On a recent trip to Europe, I spent time in Romania, France and Italy. Here are some of the geological highlights I visited: This photo is an underground glacier in the Apuseni Park. This is an area of the Carpathian Mountains with over 200 limestone caves. The Focul Viu ice cave that we visited is
Having arrived at Heathrow a few hours before the shutdown of all flights over Britain due to the volcanic eruption in Iceland, it has been fascinating to watch the unfolding impact as the flight ban has been extended through the last few days. As with an earthquake or tsunami, a geological process is suddenly thrown
Under a cloud in the UK Read More »
With Uwe Morgenstern, also from GNS Science I hiked the length of the Tararuas just north of Wellington over 4 days. The Tararua mountains are a section of the ‘backbone’ of New Zealand. They are made of greywacke rock, pushed up by the tectonic forces of plate collision. Like most of New Zealand’s mountains, they
Yesterday I was offered a flight from Paraparaumu Airport to Kaikoura by Felix Morgenstern. His father Uwe is the water and ice dating specialist here at GNS Science. This was a great chance to admire some fantastic landforms created by the uplift of the leading edge of the Australian Tcctonic Plate right up close to
Marlborough and Kaikoura from the air Read More »