Pacific

Prior to 15 January, Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai was a little-known undersea South Pacific volcano with a long name. Within 24 hours, it  was a global phenomenon – the site of the largest atmospheric explosion in almost 150 years. Jessica Rowley looks at why a remote Tongan volcano took the world by storm.

A New Zealand-led team has completed the fullest investigation to date into January’s eruption of the underwater Tongan volcano.

New findings from the record-breaking Tongan volcanic eruption are “surprising and unexpected."

NIWA and The Nippon Foundation are undertaking a mission to discover the undersea impacts of the recent Tongan volcanic eruption.

NIWA scientists and Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) have used satellite technology to chart the Cook Islands’ seafloor in never-before-seen detail. The work was done as part of Seabed 2030 - a collaborative project to produce a definitive map of the world ocean floor by 2030.

The three-year PARTneR–2 project aims to help countries in the Pacific become more resilient to the impacts of climate-related hazards.

Did you know NIWA is leading a NZ partnership in a worldwide initiative to map the entire globe’s seafloor? Found out more about the Seabed 2030 initiative.

CliDEsc is a web-based content management system and product generator library developed by NIWA in consultation with National Meteorological and Hydrological Services in the Pacific region, and with the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.

NIWA environmental monitoring technician Mike O’Driscoll has just installed two water level stations in Samoa and is starting on a third—all from the comfort of his Greymouth office.

NIWA has completed a project that aims to help build community resilience against flooding in the Bumbu River and contribute to improving Papua New Guinea’s disaster preparedness in the face of increasing climate-related disasters.

NIWA and Vanuatu's Meteorology and Geohazards Department have installed a network of fully automatic weather stations across Vanuatu.

A participatory project empowering communities with self-help tools to improve water, sanitation and hygiene.