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 »
Along with biological specimens, the sled brings a lot of rock off the sea floor. Christian Timm sorts through all the samples, cuts some of them up with a rock saw, and packs and labels them to be studied in detail back at GNS Science. The different minerals present in the samples will be analysed
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 »
The first image shows the depth profile created by the ship’s sonar as it passed over the summit of Clark Volcano. It has the classic cone shaped profile of a typical land volcano such as Taranaki. They stick up above the deeper plains of the ocean floor and provide quite different habitats for deep sea
Communal Living on a Kermadec Volcano Read More »
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
Here is a map of the ocean floor north of New Zealand. The different colours represent water depth, red and yellow are shallower than the blue and purple areas. The deep Kermadec Trench that marks the plate tectonic boundary is an obvious feature, with the Kermadec Ridge running parallel to the West (left) of the
Message in a bottle Read More »
For the next three weeks I will be at sea to the North of New Zealand, far away from the aftermath and unfolding ramifications of the events in Christchurch. I am on board the NIWA research vessel Tangaroa with a group of geologists and biologists, many of whom were involved with the recent discovery of
Off to the Kermadec Volcanoes 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 »
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 »