The quest to understand steam-driven volcanic eruptions is personal for Dr Sophie Pearson-Grant.
“I have started going on overnight tramps with my six-year-old to huts around Wellington, and we love it,” the GNS Science geophysicist says. “I'm looking forward to taking him tramping at Mt Ruapehu one day and telling him all about what we have learnt through this project.”
Fascinated by volcanoes since her own childhood, Pearson-Grant is leading a Marsden Fund-supported study to uncover precursors to steam-driven eruptions, like the Whakaari / White Island tragedy in 2019 that killed 22 people and injured 25. There have been no tours on Whakaari since the eruption, and court action is being taken against the island's owners, GNS and tourism operators over alleged health and safety breaches.
At the other end of the Taupō Volcanic Zone is Tongariro National Park,
