How An Earthquake Choked This River
Вставка
- Опубліковано 12 вер 2024
- A New Zealand research project to monitor the river transport of millions of tonnes of rock debris that resulted from the 2016 Kaikōura Earthquake. With Jamie Howarth and Adelaine Moody of Victoria University Wellington, Te Herenga Waka.
SIGN UP for news, articles and updates: julianthomson....
Keen to massively BOOST YOUR SCIENCE COMMUNICATION IMPACT? More info here: courses.outthe...
Visiting schools to talk about your science? This is how to TURN INFORMATION INTO INSPIRATION! courses.outthe...
I love the enthusiasm of scientists in their natural habitat.
Indeed - that is so true!
This is such important work! Past large earthquakes in Aotearoa-New Zealand have shown the continued impacts of landslides into the river systems (e.g. 1929 Buller) in both the short- and long-terms. Being able to study an example elsewhere in the country with all the equipment and technology we now possess will be so invaluable. Not only will it allow us to forecast and mitigate potential hazards in the future with Alpine Fault or other significant quakes which will generate significant landsliding, but it will also give us perspective on what has happened previously in quakes like Buller. Thank you for sharing Jamie & Adelaine's work!
Yes, you are exactly right. Thanks for your comment
Thanks for another fab video, clearly explained methods, reasons for and the outcomes of the study.
Thanks for your appreciation!
Drone technology alongside the reduction of weight and volume of technology really is valuable. The amount of detail you can easily gather is amazing. I am sure the (near) future will be full of discoveries in sciences that benefit from this technology.
Yep, they have already opened up so many possibilities in a wide variety of ways
Love seeing your instruments and how they're used. IMO, gathering raw data this way is the foundation and heart of science.
Thanks, that's great
Fascinating processes / techniques to understand landscape and plan for future earthquakes. Love this series.
Thanks, glad you like the videos
New word for me: aggradation. I thought it might be opposite to degradation, but it seems they may not be direct opposites.
Yep - a common word for sedimentologists, but not so much for the rest of us!
So interesting thanks so much. Regards to you from South Africa 🇿🇦
Cheers!
Another great vid. Thanks so much!
Thanks for your kind comment
Thanks, A nice enjoyable overview.
Cheers
Question - do you guys measure the volume of material washed into the ocean, which i assume creates some sort of material fan out into the ocean? Does the material wash out into deep water or does it deposit along the shore pushing the shorefront out?
And wouldn't this change the dynamics of the water channel under the bridges, possibly creating unforeseen flood events?
The shoreline affects of the material just brought down by the rivers would be very difficult to quantify as you need to remember the Kaikōura coast had massive changes itself independent of the river erosion systems feeding into it. There were many hectares of new land created with upto 6 to 10 metres rises in places of the the shoreline against sea level, and even the small rises were significant of 1 to 1.5 m uplifts. These large changes of sea level cause a big change in sediment movements in the marine/land interface just alone.
When added to the fact there were many large landslides directly off hills into the sea further complicated by the State Highway rebuilding crews washing many many thousands of tonnes of rock and material off the landslides above the new road route into the sea. I stayed with some people in the area just north of Kaikōura over Easter and they told me helicopters were filling monsoon buckets suspended underneath the choppers with sea water and then releasing them onto the slips washing the loose material out to sea was ongoing for months. So you see even without the rives the whole coast has a massive amount of sediment being moved around and along the coast. Trying to isolate the material just coming from rivers like the Hapuku once at the shoreline even with new tech, would be pretty impossible.
A bit off topic , re debris from earthquakes coming down stream .
I was in Westport in the early 1980s , when the debris from the Murchison earthquake was about to start under the bridge into town . That earthquake occured before we moved north , and it broke the bed (?) Of the top bit of the Denniston incline , so a road had to be put in , while the Dennistonians , got supplies up via the bridal trail , and a string of pit ponys . The town - most of it - was eventually moved to the bottom of the hill at Waimangaroa .
That's really interesting. Thanks for sharing
Excellent channel, love your content
Thank you very much!
Really good stuff. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for watching!
These are fantastic videos
Thanks for your kind comment!
Great stuff. I am guessing that the substantial debris dam and the lake impounded by it upstream from where this work was being done, has reached some kind of equilibrium and is no longer at immediate risk of failing? Asking because I understand that the debris dam is 150 metres high from toe to crest.
Yes - you are right, it has largely stabilised
Really interesting
Glad you like it!
Nice video. Any fossils?
I didn't see any, but that doesn't mean there aren't any.
I was up this area over easter and most of the rock types and land deformation process aren't great for finding Fossils. There is some limestone I saw with fossilized shells but by the time the bulk of this stuff gets down into the river systems the rocks are very broken up due to the massive landslides due the 2016 quake, freeze thaw effects (the top half of the areas mountains are covered in snow/ice during winter) and high water flows on the eroding rivers/creeks. Any well preserved fossils are going to be high up, very difficult to access on very steep slopes which are now mostly fairly dangerous giant scree slopes.
@@user-uy6uc5ey5q Thanks for the info.
'impacts' is ...Australian grammar?
A good video, thanks!
Cheers!
I am curious whether there were any fish in the river before the earthquake, because it looks like the sediment load and gradient changes have eliminated any habitat for fish, amphibians, and even most macro-invertebrates for at least the next couple of decades as the sediment works its way out to sea. If you look at the delta sediments at the ocean, would you characterize these as greywacke type deposits that seem to be more poorly sorted, and angular materials? The data from these observations may not only help forecast future conditions, but may also provide keys to interpret much older deposits and how they formed with examples of punctuated equilibrium environments.
Why do we call it the Kaikoura quake when the epicenter was near Waiau in north Canterbury?
is it just me or I'm I thinking about how much gold you can get from that river from the landslides...
Shhhh no?
@@OutThereLearning what's that suppose to mean?
@@Luca-N means maybe you shouldn't tell anyone just in case there is, lol
@@OutThereLearning oh yeah... lol
Its almost all sedimentary rock types which have very little heavy metal content. There is some quartz about but Kaikōura is never been a gold bearing region.
I find absolutely nothing about this work essential or exciting. All I see are "scientists" desperate to justify grant money.
When the Alpine Fault decides to rupture, landslides will have consequences for years after. Modeling them will help to understand what the impact could be long after the event. This will help with long term recovery planning.
@@OutThereLearning yeah... like I said.
@@thebackyardbear all good, thanks for watching and commenting
You must be joking.....but not a very nice joke. Knowledge is understanding.