Guest Author • Aug 21, 2018 •
Graeme MacRae, Massey University The series of earthquakes in North Lombok and others further east goes on. But hopefully the worst is over and the intensity will recede from now. Hundreds of people have been killed and a lot more injured, many of them seriously. Nearly all this human suffering was caused by collapsing buildings. The subsequent … Read More
Guest Author • May 15, 2018 •
Stephen Hicks, University of Southampton Just days after North Korea announced it was suspending its testing programme, scientists revealed that the country’s underground nuclear test site had partially collapsed. This assessment was based on data gathered from smaller earthquakes that followed North Korea’s biggest nuclear test in 2017. A new study published in … Read More
Guest Author • Mar 14, 2018 •
David Blair, University of Western Australia This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Whenever there’s an announcement of a new discovery of gravitational waves there is usually an accompanying sound, such as this: We have only detected half a dozen signals so far. The first five are black holes whose … Read More
Eric Crampton • Feb 22, 2018 •
Seventh anniversary of the Christchurch earthquakes. GNS figures there’s about a 1/120 annual risk of something of similar size hitting Wellington: 0.833%. Recovery here will be much harder than in Christchurch. There are few local options for firms to relocate to while downtown is torn down and possibly rebuilt. There are few transit routes in and out. The airport could … Read More
Guest Author • Dec 20, 2017 •
In January and February several NIWA scientists focused on finding out more about what happened to marine environment off Kaikoura following the November 2016 earthquake. Marine geologist Dr Josh Mountjoy led an investigation to map offshore faults ruptured by the earthquake and to investigate changes at the head of the Kaikoura Canyon. Data revealed huge mudslides had occurred sending … Read More
Guest Author • Jan 09, 2017 •
In this guest post University of Auckland Geologist Dr Julie Rowland reflects on the 14 November M7.8 Kaikoura earthquake. Let’s be clear – it was huge. When you see houses shunted sideways 10 m or lifted up by 8, you know you are dealing with a big one. The drone imagery and photographs that have been doing the media rounds paint … Read More
Guest Author • Nov 23, 2016 •
By James Goff, UNSW Australia Parts of Japan were on tsunami alert yesterday following a magnitude 6.9 earthquake off the east coast of the country. This was the first real test for Japan since the 2011 earthquake which led to a deadly tsunami. The destruction led to a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Paul … Read More
John Kerr • Nov 20, 2016 •
The tsunami generated by last week’s 7.8 earthquake was not expected as the quake was initially centered on land, not offfshore. In the week since the quake there has been a lot of public debate over the efficacy of New Zealand’s national and local tsunami warning systems. The Science Media Centre has collated much of the coverage here. A key point … Read More
Guest Author • Nov 17, 2016 •
Karen Nimmo Earthquakes. Aftershocks. Floods, slips, torn-up roads, wrecked houses and businesses: how much more natural disaster can we take? New Zealand has been struck hard this week by nature’s forces. Sadly lives were lost, but we were shaken by the realisation that, had the magnitude 7.8 Quake hit … Read More
Guest Author • Nov 15, 2016 •
By Jane Cunneen, Curtin University The tsunami warnings from the latest New Zealand earthquake show how important it is for people to be prepared for such an event. The early messages from New Zealand’s Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management (MCDEM) on its Twitter account @NZcivildefence said it was “assessing whether there is any tsunami threat”, … Read More