Volcano Cup fever about to take hold in New Zealand!
Do you find volcanoes fascinating? We do here at GeoNet. Right now there's a whole lot of scientists, teachers and students talking about volcanoes on Twitter and voting for their favorites - you can join in and vote for yours too!
The #VolcanoCup is alive on Twitter and is the latest in the #GeoCup series. Things like faults, dinosaurs and minerals have been the focus of recent #GeoCup rounds and now it is the turn of the volcanoes. The New Zealand volcanoes are up against volcanoes from all over the world.
We here at GeoNet, along with all our University colleagues and the team at the Joint Centre for Disaster Research who research volcanoes will be voting for our favourite volcanoes. You can too - our New Zealand volcanoes need your support! You can follow the #VolcanoCup hashtag to vote for your volcano of choice and to discover an effusion of volcano facts, images, fun volcano stuff and #scicomm (that’s science communication for all you non-tweeters).
The #VolcanoCup started on 1 February and currently the USA are playing off over 4 rounds to select their volcano to enter in the #VolcanoCup. It will then be New Zealand’s turn to select our volcano to compete for the cup. The shortlist of contenders to represent us are the Auckland Volcanic Field, the Taupo Caldera, Ruapehu and Tongariro – which one do you think is the biggest baddest volcano and why? The main #VolcanoCup competition will then follow.
The New Zealand team in the Volcano Cup play off
Volcano Cup draw sheet
We here at GeoNet would love you all to join in on the volcano fun. Get out your volcano facts, research, maps, etc, and tell us why people should vote for your favorite New Zealand volcano out of the four contenders. Remember to tweet using the #VolcanoCup hashtag. Here’s some tweets from our friends at the Science Learning Hub and @eruptn:
“We're all for Mt Ruapehu - she's a majestic full figured tumbling stratovolcano - meet her here” - @NZScienceLearn
“Some good background technical information on #Ruapehu #volcano for the #VolcanoCup https://goo.gl/14yck1. Check it out." - @eruptn
Janine Krippner (@janinekrippner), a Kiwi volcanologist in West Virginia, USA, is keeping track of all the resources and information that are contributed as part of the #VolcanoCup here.
While the #VolcanoCup is a chance to have fun and learn something new, keep in mind the more applicable side: monitoring volcanoes, understanding the hazard and being prepared saves lives. People here and around the world need help when eruptions occur.
#VolcanoCup is already erupting all over the Twitter feeds. This #GeoCup is gonna be big!