The Weekend for Sunday 16 January 2022

 

8:15 Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai eruption: what we know 

We begin this morning in Tonga, where a massive eruption of the Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai underwater volcano has sent dust and debris into the stratosphere. A 1.2 metre-high tsunami struck the Tongan capital Nuku'alofa on the island of Tongatapu yesterday evening, breaching the shoreline and flooding coastal roads and properties. RNZ Pacific's Head of News Susana Lei'ataua joins Emile to discuss what we are learning this morning as the sun comes up over the pacific. 

8:20 Tongan community in Aotearoa stands together

Communications are still down with Tonga, but the Tongan community in Aotearoa is gathering this morning to send their support to their whānau in the Kingdom. Pakilau Manase Lua is part of the Tonga Auckland group and he joins Emile to discuss the experience for the Tongan community in Aotearoa. 

8.30 Shane Cronin: Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai volcano 

Scientists are predicting that Tonga's main island, Tongatapu, could be blanketed in ash this morning.

Auckland University volcanologist Professor Shane Cronin says the magma type erupted is what's called an intermediate composition - similar to what comes from the Ruapehu volcano.

8.35 Tsunami warnings in place over the Pacific region 

Tsunami warnings are in place on the north and east coast of the North Island and the Chatham Islands as authorities monitor the impact of the eruption and Cyclone Cody. Dr Emily Lane is a hydrodynamic scientist at Taihoro Nukurangi NIWA who specialises in tsunami, storm surge and flooding inundation. 

8:40 Gene edited pigs changing the organ game 

News broke earlier this week that A US man has become the first person in the world to get a heart transplant from a genetically-modified pig. Doctors in Maryland acknowledged what they were doing was experimental, but the results seem positive so far. It comes after decades of work to get to this point by geneticists, scientists and doctors around the world. One of those people is Dr Paul Tan. 

Tan has been working in the field for 20 years in several different companies. He's currently the Director of NZeno which is working towards breeding pigs with gene-edited kidneys that could be transplanted into humans. It's complex time consuming work, in a field of science which often isn't well understood. 

9:05 Mike Pole - the Kōwhai forests of central Otago 

When you think of central Otago, what do you think? Arid, tussock-covered hills and wilding pines, drenched in sun, rolling into the distance? It was not always thus, according to a fascinating new peer-reviewed study in the Palaeontologia Electronica science journal - the result of self-funded research by Dunedin-born palaeobotanist Mike Pole. Pole paints a distinctly different picture of Aotearoa in antiquity. 

9:25 New weather reports from Fiji 

The pacific region is continuing to assess the impact of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai underwater volcano eruption. The Nationall Weather Forecasting Centre in Nadi is reporting the eruption is ongoing and continues to provide updates and forecasts while communication remains down with the whole of Tonga. Steven Meke from the National Weather Forecasting Centre joins Emile to discuss what we know currently. 

9:30 Dr Emily Lane: Tsunami context this morning 

Tsunami warnings are in place on the north and east coast of the North Island and the Chatham Islands as authorities monitor the impact of the eruption and Cyclone Cody. Dr Emily Lane is a hydrodynamic scientist at Taihoro Nukurangi NIWA who specialises in tsunami, storm surge and flooding inundation. 

9:45 Who Lived There: Burke's pass 

We're going on a journey into Aotearoa's past now! We're continuing our series 'Who Lived There' this morning, it's based on a book of the same name which came out last year. Jane King took the photographs and Nic McCloy researched and wrote down the stories of dozens of significant buildings and places. Nic is taking us through these amazing buildings over the course of the month. This weekend we're looking at churches and Nic's eye has fallen on a very special one in Burke's Pass.

10:05 Henry Mance: How to Love Animals

Most people, were you to ask them, would say they love animals. Yet it's also statistically likely those same people, and I include myself in this, also eat the flesh of animals, wear their skin, drink their milk. This seeming contradiction is the topic of a new book - How to Love Animals: In a Human-Shaped World - by the Financial Times' chief features writer, Henry Mance. 

10.50 Tsunami impact across the Pacific Ocean 

Last night there was  a massive eruption of the Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai underwater volcano which sent dust and debris into the stratosphere. A 1.2 metre-high tsunami struck the Tongan capital Nuku'alofa on the island of Tongatapu yesterday evening, breaching the shoreline and flooding coastal roads and properties. Dr Jonathan Hanson is the Science Operations Specialist and a seismologist at GNS Science. 

11:05 Tongan communities concerned about lack of contact 

We return to our major story today, there was a massive eruption of the Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai underwater volcano. A 1.2 metre-high tsunami struck the Tongan capital Nuku'alofa on the island of Tongatapu yesterday evening, breaching the shoreline and flooding coastal roads and properties. RNZ Pacific's head of news Susana Lei'ataua joins Emile with an update. 

11:10 Our eight legged friends 

How do you feel about spiders? Do you admire them? Love them? Fear them, irrational as it might be? Do you recoil in horror if you spot a big one on the wall? Do you squash it, condemning us all to a day of rain, or do you capture it in a glass jar and release it outside, or do you simply say hey there spider-bro and leave it to its business of eating insects and keeping your house clean? Fiona is an arachnologist, that is, as the name might suggest, one who studies spiders!

11:20 Dr Aleisha Ward: The birth of recorded jazz 

Every year a list comes out. It's a special list of recordings and books which have entered the public domain and are no longer covered by copyright! This year a raft of cultural products from 1921 have entered the public sphere and they paint an interesting picture of a unique moment in popular music history. We thought we should play some! Jazz historian Dr Aleisha Ward is a Lecturer at the school of Music at the University of Auckland.