Session 1 · TRACE: Time & Place
Living on a plate boundary
- 10 minLook at a map of the Pacific 'Ring of Fire'. Find where the Pacific and Australian plates meet under Aotearoa: the Hikurangi subduction zone in the east and the Alpine Fault in the South Island.
- 15 minModel it: two groups push two thick folded towels together, then slide two books past each other with a jolt. Which shows a subduction zone and which shows a fault like the Alpine Fault?
- 15 minBuild a paper-cup seismometer and test it by tapping the desk. How does GeoNet use hundreds of real ones to find where and how strong a quake was?
- 10 minRūaumoko: hear how, in Māori tradition, the rumbling of Rūaumoko, the unborn child of Papatūānuku, explains earthquakes and volcanoes. How do stories and science each help people live with shaking land?
Session 2 · TRACE: Relationships
Liquefaction and the people of Christchurch
- 20 minLiquefaction in a tub: build a sand 'suburb' with water just under the surface, place a toy house and a brick on top, and tap the tub. What happens to the heavy things?
- 15 minLink to Christchurch in 2011: liquefaction silt filled streets and gardens in the eastern suburbs. Look at the Hagley Park photo. Who was affected most, and why those suburbs?
- 10 minRelationships: read about the Student Volunteer Army, whose members shovelled silt for neighbours. What did the earthquake do to how people connected with each other?
- 5 minKārearea asks one question: 'Which of the four Rs did the Student Volunteer Army show?'
Getting started
Use a labelled diagram of the two plates to colour in and a sentence frame for the liquefaction result.
Stretch
Find out what AF8 is and why scientists say a large Alpine Fault earthquake is likely in the next 50 years.
Checkpoint
Each student can explain in their own words why the land shakes here and what liquefaction does to buildings.
Activities for this week
- Liquefaction in a tub: Why do some buildings sink or tilt when the ground shakes?
- Paper-cup seismometer: How do scientists record an earthquake?
Useful this week
- Natural hazards and disasters ↗ An overview of the hazards Aotearoa faces and where they happen.
- Under the Earth's surface ↗ How moving plates under New Zealand cause earthquakes and volcanoes.
- Earthquakes topic ↗ Articles, videos and activities on earthquakes and the people who study them.
- Historic earthquakes ↗ How communities from Napier in 1931 to Christchurch lived through big earthquakes.
- AF8: Alpine Fault magnitude 8 ↗ How South Island communities are planning together for a large Alpine Fault earthquake.