Tuesday, 27 April 2021, 11:40 am
GNS Science, MetService and the Earthquake Commission
(EQC) have joined forces to enhance real-time forecasting
models for volcanic ashfall to help New Zealand communities
manage future eruptions.
The ground-breaking
EQC-funded project by leading GNS Science and MetService
scientists will combine existing eruption scenarios with
weather forecasting to better predict the likelihood of an
area being affected by volcanic ashfall.
“New
Zealand is dotted with active volcanoes and an eruption
could impact communities far beyond the regions closest to
the volcano,” says GNS Science volcanologist Dr Yannik
Behr.
The project team are developing new forecasting
models that in the near future will be able to provide more
Thursday, 18 February 2021, 12:15 pm
GNS Science experts have embarked on a research project
to determine the earthquake risk of a recently discovered
fault in the Waikato.
This is part of an effort to
better understand quake risk in parts of New Zealand that
are traditionally seen as safe from quakes.
Thanks to
improved aerial mapping tools, scientists recently
discovered the Te Puninga fault, 27km from Hamilton, that
could potentially generate a 6.7 magnitude
earthquake.
Dr Pilar Villamor, an earthquake geologist
at GNS Science, is heading up an EQC-funded project to study
the fault, about 3km from Morrinsville.
Dr Villamor
says that researchers estimate the fault could generate a