Welcome to the Physical Science of Volcanoes in New Zealand 2010 website. This course is planned as a CentreTerm course for January 2010. The links at the left will take you to the course description, the preliminary costs of the trip and physical and academic requirements, an intinerary, some other things you can do in New Zealand, an in-depth travel guide for some of the places we will visit, and a list of past participants. Conrad Shiba (238-5416 shiba@centre.edu) and Joe Workman (238-5415 joe.workman@centre.edu) will be the instructors for the course. They will be making final decisions about dates and the itinerary at some point in the spring/summer of 2009. (Subsequent payment dates will be announced later).

New Zealand is a great place to study volcanoes for a number of reasons. You will see three very different types of volcanoes all within a six-hour driving radius. There are other geothermal phenomena like hot springs and geysers that you will also study. January in New Zealand is their summer and the weather will be in the 70's and 80's with little humidity. The people are very friendly, the non-volcano scenery is also beautiful, and the food (especially seafood and lamb) is excellent. There is a huge variety of adventure activities which you can do in your spare time. In 2008, students went skydiving, bungy jumping, whitewater rafting, and mountain bike riding.

Travel arrangements will be set up so that you can go to New Zealand before the class starts and/or stay in New Zealand for a week after the class is over. In 2008, 14 students went early and stayed late and 21 stayed for 7 days after the end of the class. The costs will be slightly different for the different options and you will have to pay all extra costs (lodging and vehicle rental for instance) for the non-class days.

You might want to check out a travel journal from Nate Crimmins from the CentreTerm 2006 New Zealand course. Dr. Shiba, the other 2008 instructor has some pictures from the 2006 trip here.

Keith Dunn lecturing about lava flows with the class sitting on a lava flow on Rangitoto Island in the Auckland Harbor