Eruptions in New Zealand - Katie

 Part of the reason we chose New Zealand as our region and Volcanoes as our natural disaster is because of the 2019 White Island volcano eruption. The volcano, knows by the name Whakaari, is New Zealand’s most active volcano. Yet proper safety precautions were not followed, and tourists were taken out to the island despite the heightened activity in December 2019. These reckless actions left 22 people dead and 25 injured.

This lead to my research into volcanology, which helped us learn how difficult to predict volcano eruptions. This is when we realised that there was genuine need for our wearable. Making this technology easily available to the wider public instead of relying on private company to do the right thing could hopefully prevent an event like this from happening again.

References: 

Yong, N. (2023). White Island: Company found guilty over New Zealand volcano disaster. BBC News. [online] 31 Oct. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-67270033.

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