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Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Meeting world famous Hamish Campbell



Earthquake! It was a fine morning at 9 am when our smart extension group got to talk to Hamish Campbell a Geologist and his partner Dianna [she works at Te Papa museum]. Mr Burt and a few other kids help to set up a video conference with him also he taught Mrs Tele'a to work the buttons on the remote.Here is picture of us in Tusitala.

 We got to ask him questions about the earthquake that happened in Fiordland. Fiordland is at the bottom of the South island. Some earthquakes are so fast that you cant even feel them. That's how fast they are. Isn't that wicked. 

 We all met at Tusitala [a new room that has just been built]. We had some technical difficulty but got every thing under way. We saw Dianna and Hamish Campbell . Hamish told us some very interesting facts about the earthquake. Did you know that it is the biggest earthquake that has happened in 80 years. He said that when he went to dinner he felt the earthquake,it lasted for 15 seconds. He also said some bad news. The sad news was that Joan Wiffen a famous paleontologist died at the age of 87. Did you know that she was the first ever paleontologist in New Zealand to find a fossil isn't that amazing. But he said that he went to her funeral to represent Te Papa. What a nice man.

 He taught us many things that some of it I didn't understand, but he made it so easy for us to know what it means.He explained how the earthquake happen but he said it lasted for 30 seconds. Plus he also told us about an earthquake that happened in Tangshan in 1976. It destroyed and killed 242,000 people and heaps were badly injured. He also told us that they named an Earthquake and it was called A Dusky sound.

 Then he told us about the 2 plates. The Australian and the pacific plate. The Australian plate is the one on top and the pacific plate is under.It also reverse so it was the opposite and the other way around. If you put your right hand and just slightly slide it underneath your left hand that's how it is.

 I just want to say thank you to Dianna Grace and Hamish for wanting to conference with us and using their time to talk to us about the earthquake. I have learnt heaps and I know that one day someone will ask about the earthquake and I will say that we had a conference with him in August the 5Th. I appreciate all the facts that you have taught us and hopefully we will get to see you again.

Here's a link to Joan Wiffen

2 comments:

Mrs Tele'a said...

Malo lava Helen! Good writing Helen, you have done well to include nearly all the interesting facts we learnt from Hamish. I agree with you in that Hamish is very good at helping us to understand some complicated features of our amazing world. I'm glad you enjoyed this session as you were unsure about being part of it. Hopefully Diana-Grace will be in touch soon about another chance to chat. This is a worthwhile activity to be part of - I know you'll agree.
Keep up the good work Helen.
Mrs Tele'a

Room 18 said...
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