Otago Geology - University of Otago, New Zealand

12/10/2026

Well done Cullen!

🙌 Tautoko Cullen Mackay, who's finishing up his Master's in Geology, and who was awarded a $10,000 Antarctica New Zealand Scholarship in recognition of his research's potential to advance our understanding of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean 🎉

☎️ But in a classic Gen Z move, he didn't answer the phone when Antarctica New Zealand rang to let him know.

"I got called by this random number I didn't know and I didn't answer it, so I got a text saying I'd been awarded the scholarship and I rang them back," Cullen says.

"It was amazing, I'm very honoured to receive an award like this."

🌊 Cullen's looking at samples collected from the Ross Sea to identify and quantify the sources of dissolved iron entering the region as a result of climate warming, and understand how these inputs could influence the future trajectory of the Ross Sea ecosystem.

"I just finished the iron system on Saturday, so that’s really exciting for me," Cullen says, explaining that he's been in the lab since January.

"Now I'm processing the data, writing it up, and I hope to present what I've worked on at a conference."

🌟 Ka rawe, Cullen!

You can find more about Cullen's work here 👇
https://www.antarcticanz.govt.nz/media/news/antarctic-scholarships-2026

Otago Geology - University of Otago, New Zealand Antarctica New Zealand

30/09/2026

Good on ya Dave!

🙌 Tautoko Geology Professor David J Prior, who has received a Royal Society Te Aparangi Catalyst Fund grant of $80K to enable him and his team to develop stress sensors to measure the driving force for Antarctic ice flow. Ka rawe! 🎉

⛄ Dave, who moved to Otago from Liverpool fifteen years ago, ended up in Antarctica by accident.

“I started talking to people about Antarctica, and I got sucked into the Antarctic side of things,” he says.

🧊 His device will enable us to understand how Antarctic ice will flow downhill, and what that might mean for sea level rise. Along with providing data for modelling and prediction, it will also enable monitoring.

“We’re really concerned about the future of ice shelves and the infrastructure of Scott Base, which is on the McMurdo Ice Shelf,” Dave says.

You can read the full story here 👇
https://www.otago.ac.nz/news/newsroom/stressed-ice-shelves-and-mountains-of-food

Otago Geology - University of Otago, New Zealand

23/09/2026

Here is a very informative presentation on how the earthquake recurrence on the Alpine fault was derived. A reminder that we live on a dynamic planet.

Dr Ursula Cochran is an earthquake geologist from GNS Science. In t...

21/09/2026

A cool feature article of one of our PhD students!

💎 Tautoko Geology PhD candidate Natalia Seliutina, who has followed gemstones from the –30 degree temperatures of Siberia to the carving studios of Ōtepoti in her quest to discover why pounamu is one of the toughest natural materials on Earth.

🚀 Understanding the properties of nephrite jade might one day help us explore space, but Natalia's experiments with particle accelerators all began with her grandmother’s folk tales.

You can read the full story here 👇
https://www.otago.ac.nz/about/news/newsroom/mystical-gemstones-with-a-future-in-space-exploration

Otago Geology - University of Otago, New Zealand

20/09/2026

A big thank you to our host of the "GEOL112 Dynamic Earth, a New Zealand perspective" weekend fieldtrip to OceanaGold Macraes Operation.

16/09/2026

Last weekend the Geophysics class did their survey at Mount Horrible, inland of Timaru.

13/09/2026

Come along to Rachael Baxter's talk on phreatovolcanism. 1pm today (Monday) in the Benson common room.

05/09/2026

Let's have another photo quiz. Any clues as to what kind of geological feature is pictured? (width of view is ~1m)

02/09/2026

Looks like this could have an interesting set of presentations on landslide hazard assessment, monitoring and mitigation in Central Otago. It's on tomorrow morning and you need to register.

Aotearoa is a land of incredible scenery. The tectonic forces that have created our beautiful landscapes also make them prone to natural hazards such as earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunami and landslides. Of all these natural hazards, landslides are the most costly, causing more loss of life than earthquakes and volcanoes combined.

On the 'Landslides online field trip', we’ll take you from urban Tahuna ❘ Queenstown to the rural Cromwell Gorge ❘ Tīrau and its famous Clyde Dam on the Mata-Au River.

Expert geoscientists will guide you on this LEARNZ journey to explore different types of landslides, their causes, how to prepare for them, and what engineers do to manage their impacts.

Today is also the last day to register for the web conference being hosted tomorrow morning - see the registration details here:

https://www.learnz.org.nz/landslides263

Natural Hazards Commission Toka Tū Ake