• Extremely dangerous Ex-cyclone “Cook” to hit New Zealand

    After hitting New Caledonia with strong winds and heavy rain, Tropical Cyclone "Cook" has undergone extratropical transition but what's left of it is still very potent and is now moving toward New Zealand landfall. Over the past several weeks the…

  • NIWA adds more faults to the latest Kaikoura fault rupture map

    Scientists on board NIWA’s research vessel Ikatere took to the water in January with state-of-the-art equipment to map the sea floor between Cape Campbell and Spyglass Point to the south of Kaikoura and added more fault ruptures to the fault map of…

  • Landslide wrecks Waikato hill, New Zealand

    Extremely heavy rains that struck North Island, New Zealand over the past week have caused a huge landslide in Waikato District. According to media reports, the entire hillside in Waikato moved on Sunday, March 12, 2017, after the region saw between 180 and 220 mm…

  • Massive sinkhole opens up in Auckland, New Zealand

    A very large sinkhole has opened up in Auckland's New Lynn after a week of extremely heavy rainfall dumped by a powerful storm centered over the Tasman Sea. The structure of this storm was similar to a tropical cyclone, NIWA said and shared some of the most…

  • Tasman Tempest floods Auckland with 65 mm (2.5 in) in one hour

    A severe storm dubbed by NIWA meteorologists as Tasman Tempest has dumped extremely heavy rain and wreaked havoc in parts of northern New Zealand over the past couple of days. Some regions already saw 100-year storms and their worst flooding in a generation. A huge…

  • Tasman Tempest brings extremely heavy rain to New Zealand

    Parts of Northern New Zealand are being hit by extremely heavy rain as low over the Tasman Sea extends slow-moving fronts over the region. Rain is expected to continue through Sunday, March 12, 2017, but it will not be a steady rain, all week long. Some regions saw…

  • Earthquake swarm shaking Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand

    GeoNet's seismometer network between Taupo and the Tongariro National Park has been recording a swarm of small earthquakes since February 13, 2017. The swarm, a very common characteristic of the greater Rotorua-Taupo area, known as the Taupo Volcanic Zone,…

  • Climate anomaly responsible for glacial growth in New Zealand

    A new research carried out by scientists from the Victoria University of Wellington and the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) shows that regional climate variability caused an “unusual” period in which some of New…

  • Wildfires threaten New Zealand’s Christchurch

    A state of emergency has been declared in New Zealand's Christchurch as wildfires threatened its suburbs on February 15, 2017, forcing up to 1 000 people to evacuate. As of early UTC morning, at least one person has been killed and 5 homes destroyed….