Session 1 10th March
Topic: : Active faults in NZ's South Island and seismic risk in our region.
Speaker: Dr Virginia Toy, Geology Dept, Otago University
The South Island of New Zealand exists because of relative convergent motion between the Pacific and Australian tectonic plates. This convergence manifests as uplift of the Earths surface, which is accommodated in a heterogeneous manner by slip on faults. Fault slip also generates earthquakes.
I will discuss the distribution of active faults throughout the South Island of New Zealand, explain the way they accommodate parts of the convergent plate motions, and provide information about the likelihood they will generate earthquakes. This will be followed by a discussion of the practical effects of some recent earthquakes and consideration of how best we can be prepared for those that might occur in future.
I will also provide comparisons between the understanding of, and preparedness for, seismic risk in New Zealand, and in Ecuador.
Session 2 17th March
Topic: Making room for facts at our place – what's driving science denial, and what can we do about it?
Speaker: Dave Hansford, Freelance Science Writer, Nelson
We live, by general agreement, in the “post-truth” age. Fake news is a thing, written and disseminated by real people, real companies. Front groups and dedicated corporate staff exist for the sole purpose of undermining facts, eroding the public’s trust in science, in research, in the evidence before their very eyes. We are surrounded by agendas in constant instigation, all of them bent on manufacturing new truths.
At the same time, across western society – and right here in our place – science is on the back foot, reeling before a wave of anti-intellectual sentiment – science denial – that has seen vaccination rates fall, a surge in creationist teaching, campaigns against the no-brainer of fluoridation, and opprobrium towards aerial pest control. All of it driven, not by damning evidence, but blind belief. By memes. By billboards. By frauds.
It behoves us to understand what science denial is, and what’s driving it, because our responses to the most pressing problems – health, environment, the economy – must be guided by good research. That path will be dogged indeed if we can’t agree to trust it.
Session 3 24th March
Topic: Are We Afflicted With Wilful Blindness at Our Place ?
Speaker: Brian Turner, Poet Writer and Philosopher - Oturehua
When will we ever learn? And do we, really, wish to? Brian Turner very much sees himself as having been greatly affected and influenced by his roots and his reading; by where he 'comes from', working class stock in his homeplace, southern New Zealand. He will talk about the past, present and future as he sees it, and why he fears for the future of humankind and a whole lot else. In these regards he will refer to the work of other writers whose work he respects and who continue to influence and, hopefully, enlighten him.
Session 4 31st March
Topic: Glaciers? What glaciers?
Speaker: Dr Trevor Chinn, Glaciologist, Lake Hawea
The Westcoast weather report promises "Heavy rain south of the glaciers". This means in South Westland, past the Franz Josef and Fox glaciers. But there are 3150 glaciers one can go south of!
This talk is to explain what a glacier is, how the 3150 were counted, what glaciers do and what they tell us about the climate, and for recreation what you can do with/on them.
Then the second half of the talk puts in the picture what part glaciers had in constructing the Southern Lakes and our scenery.
Session 5 7th April
NB This Session Commences at 9.30 am to enable members to attend Festival of Colour Event at midday.
Topic: A 123 million-year history of the Wanaka & Otago region.
Speaker: Dr Martin Reyners FRSNZ, - Principal Scientist, GNS Science, Lower Hutt
Plate tectonics has provided a powerful paradigm for understanding Earth history. Here we will trace a patch of crust from its formation in the middle of the proto-Pacific plate 123 million years ago to its final resting place about 45 km below Wanaka today. In deciphering this story we will use data from sea floor spreading, geology, and geophysics. In particular, we will employ seismic tomography (the earthquake-wave equivalent of a medical CAT scan) to delineate different rocks at different depths beneath the southern South Island. This picture has recently been sharpened by installation of 40 portable seismographs, supported by the Marsden Fund. Our results provide new insights in to questions such as: how and why the Alpine Fault formed; why the Australian plate subducts beneath the Pacific plate in Fiordland, while the Pacific plate subducts beneath the Australian plate in the North Island; why the Southern Alps end north of Wanaka; and why there is pronounced basin-and-range topography (e.g. Pisa Range, Dunstan Mountains) extending from Wanaka to the Otago coast. We will also discuss the types of earthquakes Wanaka might experience, and the shaking they might produce.
Session 6 21st April
Topic: The Universe from 45 degrees South: Navigating our Wanaka night sky.
Speaker: Martin Unwin, Environmental scientist and amateur astronomer
A well-worn astronomy joke is that God put all the astronomers in the northern hemisphere, and all the best sights in the southern hemisphere. Southern skies have the richest star clusters, the largest globular clusters, the brightest nebulae, and the two nearest galaxies to our own. In winter the centre of the Galaxy passes near the zenith as the Milky Way arcs from horizon to horizon.
Martin will use planetarium software to show you how to recognise the more obvious constellations, and some of the brighter objects - all visible with binoculars - to be found there. Subject to clear skies, we'll follow this up with an evening session at a dark sky site where you can put this knowledge into practice.
Magellanic clouds & Milky Way (our own galaxy) from the Mataketake range near Haast. Photo courtesy Danilo Hegg.