Hazards

NIWA researchers study geological, weather and coastal hazards, including the impact of climate change on some of these.

  • Hotspot Watch 15 January 2021

    Hotspot
    A weekly update describing soil moisture patterns across the country to show where dry to extremely dry conditions are occurring or imminent. Regions experiencing significant soil moisture deficits are deemed “hotspots”. Persistent hotspot regions have the potential to develop into drought.
  • Kaikōura Canyon

    Our team of researchers have recently returned from a voyage onboard RV Tangaroa to retrieve moorings deployed to collect sediment samples from the Kaikōura Canyon.
  • Hotspot watch 29 October 2020

    Hotspot
    A weekly update describing soil moisture patterns across the country to show where dry to extremely dry conditions are occurring or imminent.
  • Hotspot Watch 22 October 2020

    Hotspot
    A weekly update describing soil moisture patterns across the country to show where dry to extremely dry conditions are occurring or imminent.
  • Underwater robot getting close-up look at Kaikōura Canyon

    Media release
    A six-metre long orange underwater robot is flying through the Kaikōura Canyon for the next month collecting information on how the canyon has changed since the 2016 earthquake.
  • New tsunami monitoring system for Pacific

    Feature story
    A network of state-of-the-art tsunami buoys is being deployed from New Zealand up into the Pacific to keep communities safer.
  • Serious games as a tool to engage people

    Service
    NIWA is using serious games to look at problems holistically, support understanding and give a framework for climate change adaptation decision-making.
  • Tsunami evacuation zones home to 1 in 10 New Zealanders

    Media release
    NIWA scientists have completed the first national assessment of people and buildings at risk in New Zealand’s tsunami evacuation zones.
  • A flair for finding gas bubble flares

    NIWA marine geologist Arne Pallentin is looking for telltale gas bubble 'flares"—using a multibeam echosounder—that indicate new volcanic activity in the Calypso Vent Field.
  • Using sound to see what's happening geologically

    Marine geologist - Dr Joshu Mountjoy - is mapping the seafloor landscape around Whakaari/White Island to understand how much sediment was dislodged in the eruption and where it has gone.
  • What's in a bubble?

    Marine Geophysicist Sally Watson, maps the seafloor and takes samples from the water column so we can understand geological processes shaping the volcanic underwater realm around Whakaari/White Island.
  • RV Tangaroa multibeam

    2020 - Bay of Plenty acoustics

    During the TAN2007 voyage NIWA scientists headed to the waters around Whakaari/White Island in the Bay of Plenty to survey changes to the seafloor since the volcanic eruption in December 2019.