Supervolcano — what’s it like living under one?
Scientists want to know what Taupō locals make of living on a supervolcano.
As part of the ongoing ECLIPSE (Eruption or Catastrophe: Learning to Implement Preparedness for future Supervolcano Eruptions) project, researchers from GNS Science have created a short survey to help understand Rotorua and Taupō district residents’ views on different natural hazards.
Senior scientist at GNS Science, and director of disaster management at Massey University, Professor David Johnston said the ECLIPSE project was in its fifth year and the survey was key to finding out how the public responds to, and understands, the science behind earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and other geological and weather events that may impact their lives.
‘‘Activity related to Taupo’s supervolcano has been getting a lot of public attention lately . . . it’s all part of living in a big volcano, and we want to better understand the hazards and long term history surrounding that.
‘‘We want to understand how people understand the risks to them . . . and as scientists we need to be able to communicate what we already know to the public in a meaningful way.
‘‘We want to know what issues they are most concerned about and what we can do to get those messages across,’’ Johnston said.
The survey takes about 10 to 15 minutes to complete and asks questions about different hazard events, emergency drills and a series of demographic questions.
It asks how people rate the danger of various natural hazards, how prepared they are for such disasters, how worried they are about them and how much they know about them.
The findings will help inform future research and emergency management work in the region.
‘‘It’s also about measuring the impact of recent news stories and how they can change peoples’ perceptions of the risks involved, so this is the beginning of a communication process, not the end.’’
While the survey is aimed at Rotorua and Taupō residents, Johnston said anyone was welcome to participate.
‘‘The bigger the data set, the better the results.’’
The survey states that New Zealand has the world’s most frequently active supervolcano system and the Taupō Volcanic Zone (TVZ) has two recently active volcanic centres – at Taupō and Okataina.
‘‘Every few decades the TVZ experiences unrest and every few hundred years it erupts.
‘‘These eruptions can be very small and short-lived, or more rarely, enormous on a global scale.
‘‘Deciding if unrest will lead to an eruption, estimating the timing and impacts of any future eruptions (of whatever size), and isolating the probability of another supereruption remains one of our biggest challenges,’’ researchers said.
The ECLIPSE project aims to reduce the uncertainty around future supervolcano unrest episodes and eruptions and is funded by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s Endeavour Research Programme.
To access the survey visit the GNS Science website at www.geonet.org.nz.