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 »
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 »
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 »
Sentry is the showpiece of our 2011 expedition to the Kermadec Arc Volcanoes. It is an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) that has been developed by the team at the Wood’s Hole Oceanographic Institution who are world leaders in submarine technology. Unlike the other devices that are put over the side of the ship and lowered
Adventures of the Sentry Read More »
Fabio Caratori Tontini is interested in measuring the magnetic properties of the rocks on the sea floor. Because most of them are volcanic lavas that contain a lot of iron, they have become magnetised as they cooled and solidified in the presence of the Earth’s magnetic field. When the hot geothermal liquids pass through them,
The Magnetic Charms of the Sea Floor Read More »
We have now been traversing above Clark Volcano for several days, and a variety of surveys have been operating, including dredging for mineral and biological specimens, photography of the sea floor, magnetic surveys and water chemistry sampling. The technological centrepiece of our expedition to the Kermadec Arc is a strange object known as ‘Sentry’. Sentry