Down below
Auckland is known for its many volcanic cones. Few realise that geologic history has left another volcanic marvel just beneath their feet.
Auckland is known for its many volcanic cones. Few realise that geologic history has left another volcanic marvel just beneath their feet.
Visual artist Chirag Jindal and speleologist Peter Crossley have spent the past 18 months carrying $100,000 worth of equipment into 10 Auckland lava caves.
Some of the caves are more than 40,000 years old. Most have remained largely unknown as they lie below private property.
Jindal and Crossley used a LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) scanner which has produced never before seen images of the caves.
One scan takes roughly 10 minutes, but depending on the size of the cave, upwards of 20 individual scans were sometimes required to capture the full scale of a cave.
Jindal said the scanning was the quickest aspect of the project, with other obstacles taking up most of their time.
‘‘Taking the scanner into the caves took the most time,’’ he said. ‘‘We had to crawl through manholes and go through people’s backyards just to get to where we needed to be, with permission of course.’’
Jindal said they spent three days scanning one particular lava cave in Three Kings.
Auckland is the only region in New Zealand, and one of the only places in the world, that has lava caves like these beneath its surface, the pair say.
Jindal said that most Aucklanders were not aware of these caves and one of the motivations behind the project was to shed light on their beauty. ‘‘We wanted to express an immersive narrative about the caves.’’
He said that LIDAR scanning was an ‘‘emerging technology’’ – it has been used by archaeologists to discover a Mayan city and settlement around Angkor Wat in Asia. He was excited to ‘‘showcase the power of LIDAR to reveal the hidden environment’’.
The images will be on display at the Into the Underworld exhibition which is being held at Wynyard Quarter’s Silo Park in Auckland, from December 9 to 24.