Scientists seeking lost quake tools

Scientists say they’ve lost track of three quake-detecting devices that were on loan from Japan — and want to hear from anyone who spots them.

The three ocean-bottom instruments, used to record seismic waves from earthquakes and other sources, did not respond when scientists sent an acoustic signal to them from a ship during the recovery voyage in March.

Of the 100 that were deployed on the seafloor east of Gisborne late last year, 97 were successfully recovered.

The bright yellow spheres, about the size of a large beach ball, had been collecting a CAT-scan-like image of the tectonic plates deep under the east coast, and might yet wash up along the Tairawhiti coast. They are marked with “GNS Science (NZ)” plus some Japanese characters.

“The instruments are valuable and we would like to return them to our Japanese colleagues who kindly loaned them to us for the duration of the project,” said the leader of the New Zealand team, Stuart Henrys, a geophysicist at GNS Science.

The international project, which will continue until October, is using several hundred onshore and offshore seismic instruments to record seismic waves from earthquakes and from ships that generate pulses of sound directed at the seafloor.

The data collected is combined and helps scientists create a 3D image of the subduction zone to a depth of about 15km below the surface.

The scientists asked anyone finding an unusual piece of equipment such as this to contact GNS Science at 04 570 1444.