article: Aug 12 2008 - July roundup

Last month's progress and news within the GeoNet project.

The Tauranga tsunami gauge installation, with the sensors located within the white pipes below sea level.

• The generation of the New Zealand earthquake catalogue was restructured to accommodate a "near real-time" catalogue. GeoNet Data Centre Technicians are now processing earthquake locations one week behind real time. This allows for more timely finalised earthquake hypocentres to be generated for scientific use.
• The most significant earthquake of the month occurred on July 12, magnitude 6.0 (revised), 80 km south-west of Te Anau, 100 km deep. It was felt throughout Fiordland, Otago and Southland, with maximum intensities MM 5 in Queenstown and around Invercargill.
• The Utiku landslide monitoring system was installed, just south of Taihape. This consists of 4 stations spread across the landslide, each with a continuous GPS receiver and a ground water level sensor, and one site with a rain gauge.
• The Tauranga tsunami gauge was brought on line with the upgrade of the radio repeater site at nearby Papamoa.
• A new continuous GPS site near Levin, Moutere No.3 (LEVN) was made fully operational.
• A landslide rapid response was undertaken, which involved taking the GNS Science terrestrial laser scanner down to the Shotover River to scan the landslide upstream of Arthur’s Point. Preliminary results indicate that the landslide is still moving. A repeat scan is planned during August.
• Links to web services for access to hypocentres and felt reports were added to the Resources section of the website.