A lightning strike at Raoul Island during April damaged some of the infrastructure that GeoNet installed in May last year.
Friday 7th May 2010
A lightning strike on the 4th of April damaged the radio repeater and webcamera on Raoul Island in the Kermadecs.
GeoNet operates a number of instruments on Raoul Island to monitor the volcano’s activity. This includes a continuous Global Positioning System station to measure ground deformation, 3 seismographs, a microphone to detect volcanic explosions, temperature monitors at Green Lake and Marker Bay, a water level monitor at Green Lake and a web camera which overlooks Green and Blue Lakes. Tsunami monitoring equipment was installed at Boat Cove and Fishing Rock in May last year.
The lightning strike on April 4th damaged the radio repeater on Mount Moumoukai which relays information from various instruments on the island. The damage was repaired during a visit in April to carry out scheduled maintenance on the tsunami gauges and the system that transmits data from the island via satellite.
However once the damaged radio repeater at Mount Moumoukai had been repaired, it was found that the camera had also been damaged during the lightning strike. It was not possible to repair the camera on the island and a replacement camera will not be able to be installed until October, at the earliest, when the next scheduled maintenance visit occurs.
[Compiled from data provided by the GeoNet project and its sponsors EQC, GNS Science and FRST.]