Frontiers Abroad is proud of the research projects completed by our 2008 class.
ENVIRONMENTAL GUARDIANSHIP IN A CHANGING WORLD: CASE STUDIES FROM THE BAY OF PLENTY REGION, NEW ZEALAND Adam Kotin, Pomona College
AFTER A TIME, the great mountain Putauaki had grown weary of his wife. Tarawera, who lay beside him day by day, had become increasingly irritable over the years, and her temper flared and raged with a regularity that soon became unnerving. The couple's many years of happiness now seemed a forgotten tale on the horizon of time.
Seeking an escape from this abuse, Putauaki fell into the habit of looking off into the distance at the many other mountains he could see across the landscape. One sight in particular caught his eye more than the others the fair young maiden Whakaari. From her post far out at sea, she would unleash brilliant clouds of white smoke into the air, which teasingly billowed up her slopes and out over the wide blue ocean.
Of course, all this beguiled Putauaki to no end. No doubt a life at sea would treat him well, and a life with Whakaar i would be absolute bliss. But he preferred to avoid the shame of deserting his wife and son, and so stayed put trapped between the numbing tempers of his wife and the enticing signals of that forbidden vixen in the distance... Read more
THE WESTERN WHAKATANE GRABEN: WHAT'S UP? Steven Hochman, Pomona College
The oblique subduction of the Pacific plate beneath the Australian plate in the Bay of Plenty (BOP) region, New Zealand, has generated a complicated magmatic and structural setting whose history is currently only poorly constrained. A closer inspection of the stratigraphy and faulting on the Western flank of the Whakatane Graben (WWG) near Matata, an extensional feature associated with magmatic activity in the Taupo Volcanic Zone (TVZ), has yielded data allowing for a more complete understanding of the history of sedimentation, volcanic activity, local and regional faulting, and graben formation in this region. Fitting the stratigraphic observations and dated volcanic units with world sea level curves has allowed for the observation that New Zealand sea level has not varied significantly from world curves in the last 700 ka. The stratigraphy and sea level curves are also employed to illustrate an uplift rate for the western margin of the Whakatane Graben of 0.4-1.0 m/ka between 700 ka and 322 ka...Read more
AN EELS JOURNEY: SOURCE POINT ANALYSIS OF THE TARAWERA RIVER BAY OF PLENTY, NEW ZEALAND Evan Frye, Franklin & Marshall College
The Tarawera River catchment encompasses an area of approximately 984 kmof the Bay of Pleny, New Zealand. The hydrological system of Lake Tarawera and its basin topography are primarily associated with the Taupo Volcanic Zone (TVZ), more specifically the Okataina Volcanic Center (OVC) region of the central North Island. The OVC has formed over the last 350 thousand years, but it is less understood than other areas in the TVZ. Past eruptions have isolated historic sediments, but the geology and structure of the basin is understood to be extremely active and dynamic. The region receives over 1.55 m of precipitation per year and the modern river and lake systems formed in response to the eruptive events at Kaharoa at ~AD1315 and Tarawera at AD1886 (Hodgson et al. 2004). This interplay of intensive hydrology and geothermal geomorphology creates a case study of source point analysis for naturally occurring and anthroprogenically induced aqueous containments...Read more
PLANT ESTABLISHMENT FOLLOWING DEBRIS FLOWS IN TWO STREAM VALLEYS MATATA, NEW ZEALAND Tim Lambert, Stanford University
On May 18, 2005, powerful rain-triggered debris flows scoured Awatarariki and Waitepuru Stream Valleys, destroying 27 homes in their paths. Between the two valleys, the flows deposited 700,000 cubic meters of fine sand to large boulders that formed barren terraces upon which ensuing biological and physical processes could act. Within months, a suite of native and introduced plant species began to colonize these newly formed land surfaces. This project looks at the spatial and temporal pattern of succession along the two streams to gain a better understanding of the factors that determine the trajectory of plant community development, particularly the relative growth of native and introduced species...Read more
GROUND PENETRATING RADAR AS AN INVESTIGATIVE TOOL: EXPLORING HUMAN-MODIFIED TO NATURAL ENVIRONMENTS, Mindi Summers, Stanford University
Ground penetrating radar (GPR) is a recent geotechnical technique used to observe subsurface stratigraphy in a continuous transect. GPR emits short pulses of electromagnetic energy into the ground that are reflected back to the receiver according to the dielectric permittivity of the sediments below. Prominent reflectors within the sediment are then used to construct a GPR profile that can then be interpreted to yield information on depositional history. GPR has been used in a variety of settings outlined by Neal (2004).
This study continues to explore the questions that GPR can answer in different environmental settings. GPR profiles from three sites that range from completely human induced to natural are interpreted and discussed to test the applicability of using GPR in the following three situations:
1. To locate buried chemical drums in the solid waste embankment at Norske Skog Pulp
and Paper Mill.
2. To show evidence of a prior river channel now buried by a natural dune following
human channeling and redirection of the Tarawera River.
3. To investigate the evolution of a natural prograding barrier system within the
Rangitaiki Plains...Read more