Experiencing Volcano Eruptions

On Friday 23rd March, There was a Earthquake reported and located in Auckland, New Zealand. Before the Volcano could explode, something happened underground, something that human eyes can't see, but can experience and learn about. The Earthquake was caused by magma, which was pushing through the crust.

The bottom of the crust melts and this is caused by something called "Thermal plume." Magma is formed by continuous melting of rock due to high pressure and temperature conditions in the subsurface of the earth. At that moment, a grey smoke started to appear in the sky, that is when a volcano appeared in the middle of the sea.

Steam started to form on top of the water, when hot lava connected with the water, that is when a loud bang came. That is when everybody knew, that a terrible volcano eruption was about to happen at any minute. Scientists did not know about a new volcano appearing under water, so everyone had to escape, before time runs out. "Bang," you could hear citizens running for their lives and evacuating their family to a safe place.

The continental drift was causing New Zealand to move over the hot spot. Grey and black smokes started to emerge from the sea, causing lot's of noise and scaring everyone. I on the other hand, was horrified and trying to get as many people to escape.

Rarotonga Canoes

Our task was to create a presentation of something that is related to the Polynesians travelling around the pacific islands. I chose "The Garden of the Seven Stones," because Aotearoa and Rarotonga has something in common. The Maori people travelled on a waka called "Takitimu" all the way to Rarotonga. The garden of the seven stones all represents stones that the Maori people carved onto rocks, that represents all the seven waka's they have sailed.

Video in Taiwan

Walt: Students are able to complete all work for made in Taiwan video, to go towards blogs.

The main purpose of Oscar and Nathan’s trip was to find where their ancestors were from and where they travelled. Rarotonga and Maori’s might have the same Clan Fathers and the Polynesian people left the Cook Islands 700 years ago. 

Samoan people were originally from East Eurasia, before they travelled to South Eurasia. The Lapita Pottery is about 300,000 years old and this is what their ancestors left behind. The burial site is about 600-700 years old and this started way before Rome became a village. The people of Taiwan has a similar tradition from Samoans and Polynesian people. 

The traditional Samoan tattoos are sacred like the Lapita Pottery. From my point of view, Oscar and Nathan’s trip was successful because they now know where their ancestors were from and where they travelled too. They are also proud to know where there people came from and where their people first started, before going around to travel the Polynesian world.

Recent Earthquakes

Describe a recent earthquake you read about, its cause (which involves tectonic plate movements like the sandwich model), and the earthquakes effects.

In Papua New Guinea, there was a recent 7.5 magnitude and it was caused by a subduction of one of the tectonic plates. This recent event destroyed homes and triggered landslides. Right now, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea are both included in the ring of fire.

It is called "The Pacific Ring of Fire," The reason being is because it is the most likely place where their are lots of earthquakes and volcanoes that happens. But when it comes to earthquakes, they release something called a seismic wave that looks like rippling water. The first two waves are called P-wave and S-wave. 

A P-wave travels faster than the S-wave and the P-wave stretches the earth forwards and backwards as it spreads outwards. S-waves however, is the opposite of P-waves and they move slower than the usual speed. The S-wave arrives second and they travel in a up and down kind of motion. A magnitude means how big the earthquake is and it's also measured from 1 to 10. 

Most people get confused with the epicentre, it is part of the earthquake that is placed on the ground and it is also directly above the slip. This means it is where the earthquake slip, happened to the ground. A seismelogists is a scientists who studies earthquakes, their movement and how big their magnitude is.

The only time that earthquakes occur, is when both the tectonic plates underneath the crust slips past each other very quickly. Also, earthquakes under the ocean cause tsunami's. This is what I've learnt about earthquakes and the events that causes and what the aftershock is, once an earthquake or tsunami has passed through a city, country or even a village.

Earth's Core

Walt: Name all the earth's crust.

Our task was to name all of the earth's crust inside and make sure to find a picture that would explain about the earth's layers. Then we needed to explain what the Earth's Crust is and what it does. I learnt lots of things from this and I now know what the jobs are for each of these layers.

Scientific Discovery

Walt: Make a Scientific Discovery about Gondwana.

Today I just made a scientific discovery of a lost continent that was long forgotten, since dinosaur times. New Zealand and a number of other islands are just the tips of huge mountain range that are poking out of the water. Apparently, there is about ninety four percent of the continent is completely submerged. Only about 94% of the continent is completely submerged, which means 94% of it is currently under the water and only 6% is sticking out of the water.

Zealandia is the continent that New Zealand is a part of. It is also the very highest part, that sticks out of the ocean. There is a lot of other land out the side of NZ underneath the ocean that scientists say is thick enough to be called a ‘continent. It was part of a lost continent which is called “Gondwana.” There were also other continents that was part of Gondwana. The countries were split apart by something that Alfred Wegener founded. It was called a continental drift that moved the continents around on top of the mantle.

The continent Gondwana use to exist about 550 million years ago. The other continents that was part of Gondwana was South America, Africa, Antarctica, India and Australia. After the continental drift, all the countries were split up. Even after all the continents were moving so slow, that no even the animals on those islands noticed. After 800 million years ago, beautiful green New Zealand finally broke away from from Australia taking it’s birds and wildlife with it. 

New Zealand went out on it’s own a tiny island nation moving far, far, away, from other countries. Around 1300 AD, there was a flightless bird called a “Moa” was one of the most largest birds in New Zealand. The reason why the birds didn’t fly is because they didn’t need to waste their energy on flying. Another reason why is because they were safe on the ground.

But around that time in 1300 AD, Maori people arrived and colonized the lonely island of New Zealand, more were quickly hunted until there were none left, only a hundred years later. Another unusual bird had envolved as the top predator in New Zealand. Then animal was a giant eagle called “Haast’s Eagle or Poakia?” The oral legends of the Maori people tell the tale of a flying beast of fearful hunting powers strong and fast enough to kill a human.

Life continued, though the more Poakia were not the only birds to live here for the millions of lonely years NZ spent by itself. In the last few hundred of years, something has changed in New Zealand, something has arrived and our birds are not prepared to handle it.

Fun facts:

A century ago, there was a birds called a “Moa” is was able to fly. But for each generation, the birds started to waste their energy because they had to drag their big wings along with them. So now the birds don’t have wings, reason being is because it wastes their energy. Moa’s with the smallest wings are most likely the ones to give birth.