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Immediate report of Victoria University of Wellington Antarctic Expedition 1988-89: VUWAE 33

Future Research

page 11

Future Research

It is anticipated that sufficient digital earthquake recordings will be available by the end of 1990 to define enough earthquake families to establish an approximately correct velocity structure, and focal distribution within the volcano. The NSF owned telemetry seismographs on the volcano may need major renovation by that time also, but grant applications for this have not been approved since 1984. Consequently, the present leader plans to remove the VUW equipment from Erebus, for probable re-deployment on Taranaki volcano, which is showing signs of reawakening. Also, his compulsory retirement on 13 June 1991, will impede further work in Antarctica.

However, I see volcanic seismology as near the end of the pioneering phase, in which researchers settled for minimum equipment to obtain the skeleton of the situation. Already the earthquake seismologists are using arrays of 100 to 500 geophones to study earth structures far simpler than a volcano. The ease and reliability with which Erebus has been instrumented may attract more ambitious researchers. Until then, the activity of Erebus is important and unique enough to warrant a minimum monitoring program, by one or two telemetry seismometer/ microphone stations and a two channel San-ei long term ink-chart recorder. I would recommend Truncated Cones for the telemetry site, because it has very good signal/noise characteristics, and is easy to reach by motor-toboggan from the lower hut on Erebus. If the present equipment there could be acquired from NSF, maintenance costs would be minimal.

Historically, Victoria University has refused to support monitoring programs on volcanoes, handing the equipment at both Ruapehu and White Island volcanoes over to DSIR when the work reached that stage. They may do the same at Erebus, but I consider that the TV surveillance equipment is too precarious for long term monitoring, and that a 16 channel digital seismograph would be wasted on only two channels. I would be happy to consult and cooperate with anyone about this. NIPR and/or NSF may be interested.

The infrared thermometry work which was part of IMEEMS in 1986/7 and 87/8, but omitted in 1988/9 due to the NIPR application to RDRC going astray, should be continued to help assess the total heat output of the volcano, using satellite infrared data (by The Open University), and plume observations from TV and COSPEC measurements of SO2 flux (by the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology).