On Sunday 5 October, Solar Tsunamis team members Johnny Malone-Leigh, Marijn Kouwenhoven and Jessa Barder, and Anna Garden from the MacDiarmid Institute (University of Otago), left for the Chatham Islands on the RSV Evohe. Travelling by sea to the Chathams enabled the team to bring the Solar Tsunamis showcase along with them, as well as their digital projector and chemicals such as hydrogen for their outreach demos.
They arrived on Wednesday, 8 October, where they delivered talks, school engagement visits, and screenings of Waihiko me te Parwhenua Kōmaru in the Starlab inflatable dome. The showcase was installed in the central whare at Kōpinga Marae for community science days, where the team also provided an additional range of science activities in the adjacent dining area – such as a hydrogen propulsion interactive, DIY graphite circuits, hydrogen fuel cells, a mini laser maze, coloured shadows, Newton’s Disk making, and more. They also ran a schedule of larger demonstrations throughout the day, including fire hands, hydrogen balloons, liquid nitrogen clouds, and liquid nitrogen ice cream.
On Saturday evening the team ran a science-themed Pub Quiz at the Den. The quiz was well attended, everyone enjoyed themselves and the team had some great discussions about renewable fuels, the electrical grid, and more. The winners took home $50 Hunting & Fishing gift cards, and the losing team was gifted Solar Tsunamis t-shirts as a consolation prize. The Tūhura team noted that they achieved a great depth of engagement from attendees of all ages, with a lot of visitors to the community days staying for 3-4 hours and trying everything multiple times, often designing their own investigations. This is something they rarely see at more urban community drop-in sessions.
Since one of our MANA magnetometers has been hosted on the Chathams since 2022, our team were pleased to return to the islands and share the results of the Solar Tsunamis research project, giving back to the community that had helped us by providing us with important data. While on the island, Johnny removed the Chatham Islands magnetometer. Its time being hosted on the island has now come to an end, and it will be installed at another location to be decided by our researchers.
Above: The Solar Tsunamis team in the Chathams
Below: A gallery of photos of outreach and field work activities from the trip
