One of the amazing tools that is on the Tangaroa is a multibeam sonar scanner that maps the contours of the sea bed as the ship travels along. It sends high pitch sound waves downwards in a fan shape and calculates the shape of the sea floor from the complex acoustic reflections. Over the last […]
I asked Kevin Fenaughty, the GeoNet data centre manager at GNS Science, to explain something about the different types of seismic waves affecting Christchurch during the present aftershocks:
Earthquake shock waves explained Read More »
The Pink Terraces of Rotomahana before the Tarawera Eruption of 1886 (Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand, must be obtained before any re-use of this image). Devastation after the Tarawera eruption Yes – the unbelievable news is, that inspite of being located at the centre of New Zealand’s most violent eruption of
Pink Terraces found! Read More »
Vicki Ferrini from Columbia University in the US, is a specialist at processing data from the side scanning sonar. In the photo taken from the shelter on the lake shore, she is showing her american colleagues some of the images that she has produced shortly after downloading data from the last AUV mission. Sharon Walker
Scanning Details of Rotomahana Lake Bed Read More »
There are three more days left before the scientists have to end the survey, and all systems are operating well. A boat from the University of Waikato has been used for several different purposes, including a magnetometer survey and also CTD (Conductivity Temperature and Depth) measurements. Data from the different surveys are processed each day
Rotomahana lake floor comes into focus Read More »
The submersibles, like two faithful and intelligent mechanised mammals, conitnued their diving and tracking progress today, closely monitored by their attentive minders. Seeking them at the end of a mission when they automatically float to the surface, is very reminiscent of looking for whales or dolphins, with only their ‘dorsal fins’ visible above water. Most
Sensing Remote Rotomahana Read More »
Today was a very active day for our research below and around Lake Rotomahana The different teams were working on or around the lake included: A gravity survey of the back country to the East of the Lake Magnetic survey of the lake floor Rock sampling survey of volcanic deposits from points around the lake
Lake Rotomahana starts to show her hidden side Read More »
Over the last two days quite some time was spent testing the Automated Underwater Vehicles. They are transported in the back of a van – in the photo you can see Rob Littlefield from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution preparing one of them for a trial run. The two AUVs each carry a different type
The Deep Fault Drilling Project begins its first phase of drilling in the next few days. In this video Rupert Sutherland tells why scientists want to drill into New Zealand’s huge Alpine Fault.
The Deep Fault Drilling Project Read More »