Southern Alps fieldwork video
PhD student Hubert Zal's video features a group of geophysics students carrying out gravity and seismology work surrounded by spectacular South Island scenery.
PhD student Hubert Zal has put together a video from a recent field trip to the South Island, which features a group of geophysics students carrying out gravity and seismology work surrounded by spectacular scenery.
Fellow PhD student, Laura-May Baratin, explains:
"Every six months geophysics students go down to the South Island to do maintenance on the SAMBA seismic network which comprises 13 stations. Five of those stations are located on the West Coast of the South Island and the other 8 are located in the central part of the Southern Alps. Of those 8 stations, 7 are only accessible by helicopter, which is amazing although very expensive.
"The lucky geophysicists for this trip were Master's student Steve Jenkins, who is also conducted his own gravity campaign in the Whataroa valley; Hubert Zal, a newly arrived PhD student; Adrian Benson, a School technician; and myself. We started this servicing in late September with a turbulent ferry ride from Wellington to Picton that ended up with a lot of queasy stomachs. We then drove to the West Coast where strangely enough a blazing sun and a cloudless sky were waiting for us. This was the perfect weather for flying!
We serviced all of our sites there except one, which unfortunately was buried under several metres of snow. We spent the next few days servicing a couple of seismometers from the Deep-Fault Drilling Project array in the Whataroa valley where sand-flies feasted on us. We then finished this servicing trip by heading to Mt Cook to service our last two stations. Our last helicopter ride near the Tasman Glacier was spectacular although very windy."