Give me a thumbs up or something when you want to start. The question I have here
from Sally-Anne in Taranaki and she is asking you know, how likely is that Mount Taranaki
will erupt and if it does right what will happen. So thanks Sally-Anne for the question,
and the short answer is Taranaki will erupted again in the future and aspects of the eruption
will be so much what we've seen in the past there. So in Taranaki erupts there are three
or four types of eruptions, the first one is ash fall, that's when an explosion occurs at
all ash column grows above the volcano and the wind blows it away and the ash will fall down
wind on the community. The other is when lava reaches the surface and that can form a lava
flow or a lava dome. The domes they'll be in the crater at the top while a lava flow then will come
down the side of the volcano. Now if that don't collapse us or some part of the volcano collapses
we'll have ever lunches down the side of the volcano. And these can destroy everything that
they travel very fast and they're hot and can reach out to maybe ten or fifteen kilometres.
The other feature will see at Taranaki is lahars notice when the snow is melted and these generate
volcanic floods off the volcano, they also can travel large distances and even reach the
coast. So I hope that sort of explains what may happen at Taranaki for you. Thanks Sally-Anne.
So I've taken the opportunity of a of the lock down to to grow a mohawk
which I thought may be something that I could perhaps hide a little bit maybe
for this video. Like it it's good. Yeah okay well let's go for it then.
This question is from Cole from Tauranga and the question is is there enough pressure so
that a volcano can crack or split in half. So the quick answer is volcanoes don't normally do that,
it would take an enormous amount of pressure and it's often impossible. However pressure can
cause a few things at volcanoes they can create some cracks which can create some earthquakes
that we can record with seismometers. And pressure can also create some bulging of
the ground surface that we can record with a GPS so we're not talking a huge amount we're talking
millimeters or centimeters, and both earthquakes and and ground deformation are used as one of
the symptoms we monitor as an indicator of the presence of magma underground. In very extreme
cases we can have a volcano bulging to the point where it becomes unstable and then collapse,
but this is extremely rare and we've seen that in the past at Mount St. Helens in 1980. What a
long time ago. Never done this before, so its good to try new things. Lianne from Ngaruawahia asks,
I feel quite safe living near Hamilton in regards to natural disasters but I wonder if there was an
eruption in one of our active volcanoes would lava or ash reach Hamilton. That's a great question
and it's true that Hamilton is quite removed for most parallels that New Zealand faces. In terms of
volcanoes there's no active volcano near Hamilton so Hamilton is quite safe from the proximal
hazards. Those are the hazards that stay close to the vent and lava flow would be considered one of
those. So yeah Hamilton is not likely to receive a lava flow anytime in the near future, but ash is
something that Hamilton could face so all these young volcanoes can produce volcanic ash. And
where ash goes depends on how high that eruption colonist in what direction the wind is blowing
that day. So Hamilton could receive ash in the volcanic eruption which is really unlikely to kill
you but it will make your life a lot less pleasant and more challenging. So from Trevor in Wellington
how is it possible for a volcanic lake to have a negative pH, is this calculated based on the
moles of hydrogen ions that can be donated into solution rather than the number of moles present
in solution. Really good question Trevor so the negative pH in volcanic lakes is due to the high
amount of hydrogen ions present in solution. If the concentration of hydrogen ion is more
than a certain concentration in mole per liter of solution, the corresponding pH will be negative.
And the more hydrogen ions you have in volcanic lakes, the more negative will be the pH. So the
high amount of hydrogen ions in volcanic lakes is due principally to acidic gas that are coming from
the melting rock that are below the volcano and a lot of them. And if you want some scientific
names for this you have either hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid and hydrofluoric acid.
Okay. Okay I can do it. So here's a question from Liz from Christchurch. Which is when and
how as a volcano classed as dormant. So it might surprise some of you that we don't really have a
clear definition for what's active dormant and extinct at a volcano. But we know that active
volcanoes are those ones that are erupting all the time or showing signs of an unrest. Dormant
are those ones that are all candidates that are asleep for a long time so that might be
something like Putauaki or Mount Edgecumbe in the Bay of Plenty. While on the far end
the extinct volcano is for you in Christchurch it might be like Banks Peninsula. Which hasn't been
alive for about five million years. So that's really how we define it, it's pretty broad but
I hope that helps. So Bill from Tauranga asks what's day-to-day life like for a member of...
Here we go you are strategy yeah go. Bill from Tauranga asks the question on the day-to-day
life of a member of the Volcanology team a team of science. My week starts off with a team meeting,
we discuss the activity of the volcanoes in the past week and we look at what what
exciting things that we have to do for the week, weather depending. So some of the cool
stuff I do and it's quite important in terms of gathering data so we know what's happening
at the volcanoes is gas flight samplings that we fly in the lee of volcanoes and measure gas
coming out from Ngauruhoe, Raupehu and White island. And another really nice job going up
and all paint on the volcano a helicopter or something to play delight the gases in water
and we have project work - like I sampled hot springs and Fiordland and I've done
something in with the water by Thailand with scuba, and I've been with my boat
sampling watering gases. It's an awesome job that takes through amazing places been doing
it for 27 years nearly and it still excites me. It's one of the best jobs in the world.
Okay so this question is from Leticia in South Taranaki, and she's noticed that Taranaki is
way out to the west and the North Island and once know what it's doing out there when all the rest
of the volcanoes are further east. So this is a this is a really good observation we know there's
a Maori legend that explains why Taranaki is out to the west being banished by Tongariro,
from a geology perspective we know that it's related to the subduction zone. So the plates
the Pacific plate that's going under the Australian plate is quite shallow beneath
ruapehu and tongariro which causes those volcanoes, but as it goes deeper the plate
boundary is actually what the subducting plate is actually further west under Mount
Taranaki and that's why we in Taranaki further west because that's where the subducting plate
is at that particular point. Background are you happy with what's at the back
there? Pretty random to be fair but yep I've got a know I think that's probably about right.
From Isaiah from lower hutts the question is can our subduction faults line set off
like topple and is it still a super volcano. So I'll starts with the second part of the
question and the answer is yes Taupo is still a super volcano, and in fact the whole region
between Lake Taupo and the north of Rotorua in North Island is a super volcano. In theory large
earthquakes could cause volcanic eruptions, but the volcanoes really have to be ready to
erupt for that to happen and we do not think that Lake Taupo is really enough to erupt so
that if there was a large earthquake around a subduction zone we could produce an eruption.
I try to to talk slower because I'm a French-speaking peasant. From Tracy
Oakland is there really a freshwater lake under Rangitoto Auckland? Wow really interesting
question. Volcanoes can trap freshwater in them from rainfall, if they fill up enough a spring
may form under and around the volcanoes as the water leaks out. And as you know in Auckland
it rains a lot and as most volcanoes are very porous, the water usually slips away. Rangitoto
could have some fresh water in it. I'll try to be sneaky with it. Okay. So the question
I'm dealing with here is from Sem Hawera, is the likelihood of a big eruption minimized
or enhanced or neither by the occurrence lots of little little earthquakes in the nearby area. So
thanks Sem for that question this is quite a good one. The short answer is basically no likelihood
will not rise and fall due to local earthquakes. And what that does do is it asks question why are
the little earthquakes occurring what process is generating the earthquakes, this could be
the volcano thinking about waking up or it could be this quakes that have been generated by you
know plate boundary and deformation processes. The key is why are the earthquakes occurring and why
other rocks been broken, you know what is driving it. So in summary the likelihood is not likely to
change bettors they will not be a trigger for a volcanic eruption but they may well indicate
the volcano is thinking about an eruption and it could be on the process of waking up.
Okay so this is a question from Matt from Tongariro, and his question is is the Taupo
or volcanic zone connected with the vents under Tongariro and Ruapehu,
as there is is there any chance of a Taupo eruption correlating with activity underneath
the central plateau volcanoes. This is a really a good question we can think that in the very broad
sense all the volcanoes in the Taupo volcanic zone are related and connected because they're all on
the same subduction zone. That's a bit like all the houses living on it on the same street. But
each individual volcano is really its own thing there they're not connected to each other in any
particular way at any shallow depth. The top or volcano itself is actually quite a separate style
of volcanic system from the central plateau volcanoes, so we don't see any correlation
with activity between eruptions from like Taupo or eruptions at Ruapehu or Tongariro for that reason.
Yeah helicopter just flying over my head now. Okay here we go here's a question from Bill from
Tauranga, which is what is the process of getting a career in volcanoes for a young person and for
an adult looking for a career change. What's the day-to-day life like. So to get a career in
volcanoes there's so many ranges of interests that we can get into so it could have include geology,
mathematics, physics or chemistry and so I got into it because of my interest in
physical geography, so understanding how the earth works. And so I went to university and
studied at Sciences and then carried on with a PhD. So for a day to day life I might go out
to the field to collect some rocks, I bring them back and do some analysis in the lab,
and then I'll go to do something a further analysis or modeling. So it's a wide variety
of work that's involved in my day-to-day life I hope that helps answer the question.