Tsunami - Beach holidays, don't just pack your togs!

Its well known that Kiwis love the beach and with 119.44km being the furthest point you can be from the coast in NZ (well that's what the internet says) its not hard to see why. But when packing and loading up your car with everything you may need for your beach adventure do you think about tsunami risk? 

After a fair amount of public education on being prepared at home 'Get Ready Get Thru', which has been great, lots of kiwis are now aware of the risks around them and have supplies at home to get through a disaster. But what about when you are on holiday?

Evacuation route signage

Last month i went to my favorite beach (Castlepoint, in the Wairarapa) for my birthday, i took my getaway kit with me and also the thought that we were at risk (as is New Zealand's entire coastline). Castlepoint beach has tsunami warning signs on the main road pointing out the evacuation routes to higher ground, and the batch we stayed at had information on the fridge as well as emergency kits / torches etc. which was fantastic!

Information on the fridge

But not all beaches, batches or hotels will have this information pointed out for you, so next time you are heading off to enjoy the beach don't forget to pack emergency supplies and do a little homework on the tsunami threat, warning signs, evacuation routes/higher ground etc.  It may just save your life one day.

You can find this information at local councils, the Greater Wellington tsunami evacuation zone maps are here


The Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management (MCDEM) is responsible for official tsunami notifications in New Zealand. You can read more on what to do before / during / after a Tsunami from MCDEM here. They also have some good info on what to put in your emergency survival and getaway kits here.

GeoNet has tsunami gauge network around NZ which consists of pressure sensors with the capability to measure rapid sea level changes, either confirming or ruling out the passage of a tsunami.  You can see their output here 
Our seismograph network includes long-period seismic sensors which are able to detect potential tsunami-generating earthquakes occurring off the New Zealand coast. Analysis of the seismic waves can determine whether the event is likely to have disturbed the sea floor and caused a tsunami, allowing warnings to be issued by civil agencies. Such warnings will frequently come too late for people on the affected coast, but they will still be timely alerts for the initiation of any emergency response.  So its important to know the warning signs and get yourself to higherground!

Links:

Historical tsunami

Tsunami FAQ

Worldwide Tsunami Monitoring PTWC

The beautiful Castlepoint beach

Playing Possum on Tongariro

With our monitoring of the active volcanoes in New Zealand, we have cameras on them so we can view the latest activity and sneaky night-time eruptions.You can see these cameras along with the latest information on the volcanoes here

Now i posted a while ago about about some of the funny things we see on our volcano cameras (here)  but i received an email today from Dawn (thanks for the great spotting!) of an interesting visitor to the Te Mari crater camera on the 29th of March at 11:10PM, she thought it was a cat, but i'm thinking it looks more like a possum!

Hopefully one day we will see one of those elusive Kaimanawa horses.

Tremors?

No not those!

One of the fun things you learn in school is that you can have 1 cat or 2 cats,  but sheep is sheep no matter how many there are!

The same goes for a word we use often with our volcanoes - tremor. The media (who probably think we can't spell) often change our information, and publish 'tremors' but it actually doesn't have an s at all!

So what is volcanic tremor??

Volcanic tremor on White Island last year

Its a continuous or semi-continuous ground vibration produced by degassing, underground boiling, magma movement, ash eruptions and a range of other sources.

It often looks like wind noise on our drums ->

Exploring Vanuatu

Vanuatu has some of the most active, and potentially dangerous, volcanoes in the southwest Pacific. Over the last 50 years, many communities have been affected by volcanic ash fall, gas and acid rain, lava flows and lahars.

So (naturally) last week i went there for a tropical holiday!

First is a wee bit of info on the volcanoes and our (GNS Science & GeoNet's) relationship with Vanuatu....

In 2012 a five-year New Zealand-funded project to increase the resilience of Vanuatu to volcanic eruptions begun, funded by the government's New Zealand Aid Programme. This built on co-operation between the two countries over past eruptions on  Ambae Volcano and Gaua Volcano and has introduced real-time seismic and camera monitoring of three Vanuatu volcanoes (Tanna, Ambae, and Gaua) for the first time, allowing time for emergency procedures to be put in place. It also aims to enhance community preparedness through a comprehensive outreach and education programme, and develop robust protocols and procedures for responding to a volcanic emergency.

Data from the volcanoes is transmitted back to the Vanuatu Meteorology and Geohazards Department (VMGD) in Port Vila. where technicians will be able to monitor and provide timely warnings to the communities on the islands. Volcano experts from our team up in Wairakei have helped train these technicians in the skills needed for installing and maintaining the new instruments, so the benefits of the project will be sustainable.Head of the Volcanology Department at GNS Science, Gill Jolly, has also spent  time working closely with scientists in Vanuatu to develop procedures for triggering warnings of volcanic activity in the islands.

Now for the fun part! 

 

I spent last week in sunny Vanuatu and had an amazing time exploring and snorkeling! We were based in Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu, which is on the island of Efate.



On my last day there i went for a day trip to the island Tanna, which is an hour south (on a small plane) and is home to the volcano Mt Yasur. 

Looking over to Mt Yasur

And after 90-bumpy-minutes by 4WD you are at the base of the volcano, it is surrounded by a huge ash plane which looked awesome (and was quite fun in the 4WD)

The ash planes

We then picked up a guide and did some more 'extreme' 4wheeldriving to get up near the top of the volcano and then its a 15min walk up to the top of the crater.

Thats our guide - with bare feet .....

The view was amazing and the sounds that the volcano makes are impressive! Every 5min or so you would hear a large boom and see huge 'lava bombs' thrown up into the air and thump back down onto the crater wall.

Heading up to the top of the crater

We left with big grins and a covered in a fair amount of ash! A fantastic (and slightly scary) experience!

And there it is!

Here is a small video i made, naturally i missed all of the 'good stuff' but you can still see how powerful this volcano is - especially when its in a 'normal / quiet' state!

 

You can see the cameras and latest activity on the volcanoes here and read more on Tanna here

And here are some token touristy / fish photos!

This is a 'cousin' of Nemo - he doesn't look too happy that i found him

Its 2013 - Time to get back out in the field

This week Lara (GeoNet Network Operations and Development Manager) and i came down to Canterbury to collect four temporary seismic sites from Mt Hutt Station, and scope around for new test areas for permanent sites.  We aim to put out 5/6 sites to test for two different potential stations, this depends on time/weather etc.


After the Canterbury earthquakes we expanded our seismic network in the immediate area, so these sites are a continuation of that and they will be the southern most new additions for the Canterbury extension.

Below are some are some photos from our trip for your viewing pleasure! You can read one of my more detailed blogs on how we set up our test sites here. 

Day One: Mt Hutt

Loading up the ute in Christchurch

Mt Hutt Station

Our first site to collect at Mt Hutt Station

 Day two: Arundel  <- click to find out where this is (and no,  its not Middle Earth)

Lara digging at our First site

All finished!

Second site finished with a thunderstorm in the background

The cows were really keen

And then the storm got us

Hail = ouch!

Murphy the farmers dog didn't like the thunder and caught

 a ride home with us

 

Tomorrow we are out and about in Timaru - fingers crossed for nice weather!

The End is Nigh...

And many people are beginning to wind down for the year, and some have finished already.

Although many of us will be out of the office, GeoNet is 24/7 so we will have people monitoring earthquakes, volcanoes and landslides etc throughout the holidays. Social media will also be taken care of as some of us *cough* can't stay off our phones!

So although we have fingers and toes crossed for a geologically/hazardy uneventful holiday break, if anything does decide to play up don't worry, we will be onto it.

All news and Volcano Alert Bulletins etc. will still be posted here

And if you ever have trouble finding any news stories, or data try the search box (see -->)

So HAPPY HOLIDAYS! (And here is a little festive Simons Cat for your Friday amusement)

Volcanoes, Eruptions, Oh My!

Well the second half of 2012 has been all about the volcanoes! Tongariro and White Island in August then maybe Ruapehu, but no Tongariro again!

So firstly some important information on what to do during during an ash fall event and lava flows and general information for before/during/after an eruption from CDEM.

Where to find information on our website:

Current status of the volcanoes, drums and cameras here
News and Volcanic Alert Buletins here
More information and history on Tongariro here and our other volcanoes here

What do the alerts mean?

So what does this mean?

Unfortunately we don't know what will happen in the days to come. As far as eruptions go this was just a small one, only lasting five minutes. And there were no signs that Tongariro was going to erupt again today, volcanoes can be sneaky like that!

We do have lots of seismic sensors on and around the volcanoes and cameras watching the mountains as well as a great team of experts currently looking at all of the data coming in! So we will be closely monitoring the volcanoes and putting out bulletins as more information comes in.

View from Te Maari Crater shortly after the eruption.