volcanoes

Volcanoes often occur at the boundary where two tectonic plates meet. In New Zealand, the Taupō Volcanic Zone (TVZ), extending from Mt Ruapehu through Rotorua to...

Discover our Planet Earth and Beyond resources for NZ Curriculum levels 1 and 2 and find out why New Zealand is home to so many earthquakes...

New Zealand has volcanoes stretching from the Bay of Islands down to Otago. Many of our volcanoes are extinct (no longer active), some are dormant (not...

In this activity, students pop a balloon in a container of sand to model caldera volcanoes and learn how lakes like Taupō and Rotorua were formed....

In this activity, students make sandwiches to investigate tectonic plate boundaries and how they move during an earthquake. There are also non-food related alternatives for exploring...

The Earth is an enormous place. There is so much that we don’t yet know about what happens on the surface of the Earth, so how...

We live in a very exciting country. A day’s drive in a car can take us from snowy mountains, past geysers and hot mud pools to...

Uncovering our explosive past How do volcanoes work? Where do they form? And what does this mean for the people that live around them? This resource...

In this activity, students make a simple model of a cinder cone by pouring a granular material such as fine dry sand, pea-size gravel or rice...

In this activity, students use (or observe the teacher using) a small coring tool to make a core sample from some available waste ground and examine...

In this activity, students work in small groups to select a 6-member disaster response team from a set of 12 biography cards. By the end of...

In this activity, students make chocolate fudge using three slightly different combinations of ingredients to model the different proportions of minerals in basalt, andesite and rhyolite...

In this activity, students watch a video describing different types of volcanic rocks and then match the chemical composition and type of volcanic eruption each rock...

In this activity, students select items to include in a home disaster kit in case of emergency and calculate how much food and water they will...

In this computer-based activity, students work in pairs or threes to find New Zealand volcanoes using a map and Google Earth. Google Earth gives impressive 3D...

In this activity, students examine an igneous rock and synthesise these observations into a poster that includes characteristic features of igneous rocks. By the end of...

In this activity, students read the book Rangitoto by Maria Gill and Heather Arnold (ISBN 978 014 350334 7). Using the information, they write their own...

Position: Emeritus Professor, Science and Engineering, University of Waikato Field: Geochemistry – mineralogy and chemistry of rocks Professor Richard Price, who passed away in March 2024,...

Position: Associate Professor, Faculty of Science, Environment, University of Auckland. Fields: Volcanoes, volcano hazards, petrology, geochemistry. Dr Phil Shane has a PhD from Victoria University of...

Position: Associate Dean of Science (Research), School of Environment, The University of Auckland Field: Volcanology, volcanic hazard and risk. Professor Jan Lindsay holds an MSc in...

Position: Associate Professor, University of Canterbury. Field: Volcanology and geothermal systems. Dr Darren Gravley has a New Zealand mother and an American father. He grew up...

The city of Auckland is built on a volcanic field. There are 50 volcanoes within an area of 1,000 square kilometres, forming the hills, lakes and...

The Earth rumbles and a hiss of steam issues from the top of Mt Ruapehu. Are these two events related? Is the earthquake caused by the...

Scientists use a range of different methods to learn more about volcanoes. A volcanologist may start by conducting fieldwork, collecting rocks and samples, and then move...