Finn Illsley-Kemp
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seismologyfinn.bsky.social
Finn Illsley-Kemp
@seismologyfinn.bsky.social
Senior research fellow in volcano seismology at Victoria University of Wellington. Studying Aotearoa's restless volcanoes one quake at a time

www.finniganillsleykemp.com
They do say it's the queer capital of Aotearoa 🌈
October 7, 2025 at 2:49 AM
Big earthquake in Kamchatka as seen on my RaspberryShake in Island Bay
July 29, 2025 at 11:50 PM
Fantastic food at Supra tonight, the octopus rice clay pot was a highlight, go check them out Welly!
July 16, 2025 at 8:29 AM
Great talk by Anna Miller of @vicuniwgtn.bsky.social all about the absolute monster Whakamaru eruption #iavcei2025
July 3, 2025 at 9:22 AM
Now that's a fold!
June 16, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Christopher Luxon is a weak leader of a lamentable right-wing government here in NZ, but even he said in April "Our migrant communities contribute so much to our country – I’m very proud they get to call New Zealand home", the contrast with what is meant to be a progressive UK government is stark
May 12, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Another day another great piece of work from an excellent MSc student at @vicuniwgtn.bsky.social, and this one is a little different. Kristian's work created a virtual reality environment to view volcano monitoring data in three-dimensions. Check out the Volcanica paper here: doi.org/10.30909/vol...
March 28, 2025 at 3:08 AM
This morning @thepost-nz.bsky.social did a write up MSc student Bethany's recent work using RaspberryShake hobby seismometers for earthquake research. These little things are amazing and could really help us understand the natural hazards we face in New Zealand

www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/3606...
March 18, 2025 at 8:51 PM
Stoked to see our paper, led by MSc student Bethany Hughes, published in @weareseismica.bsky.social! It shows that we can use Raspberry Shake seismometers to improve earthquake characterisation in Wellington, sometimes quantity over quality can work!

seismica.library.mcgill.ca/article/view...
February 10, 2025 at 9:20 PM
Excitingly the data from the ECLIPSE seismometer deployment is now open access! This network was a real labour of love for El Mestel and myself, over two years of data from around Lake Taupō. Hopefully there's plenty of knowledge to wring from it yet: www.fdsn.org/networks/det...
December 15, 2024 at 8:08 PM
Shamelessly nicked from my colleague Simon, but I just had to share this photo of faulted Kidnappers ignimbtite 😍 more than 8 metres of offset
December 6, 2024 at 7:54 AM
Taputeranga looking beautiful this evening, it's really starting to feel like summer
November 30, 2024 at 7:32 AM
Toitū te Tiriti!
November 19, 2024 at 12:16 AM
I can already see and hear the Hikoi gathering from my office in Kelburn ✊️ #toitūtetiriti
November 18, 2024 at 6:52 PM
Hello to a heap of new followers! As an intro to me, I'm a scientist based in Wellington, New Zealand studying the active volcanoes and geothermal systems of this beautiful country. Expect pretty photos of volcanic landscapes and occasional comment on the state of the NZ science system 😊
November 13, 2024 at 4:35 AM
If you're feeling stressed or frustrated, I find that looking at a cat snoozing in the sun is a good antidote
September 18, 2024 at 10:23 PM
Whakaari is still going for it as of this morning, it will be very interesting to see how this eruption evolves and whether it elevates in activity (photo from GeoNet)
August 20, 2024 at 8:29 PM
That southerly has got us feeling like...
August 12, 2024 at 7:34 AM
Another faulty photo. This time a beautiful outcrop of the Pukarua fault at Mākara beach, this probably hasn't ruptured for >1200 years
April 21, 2024 at 11:07 PM
Wellington continues to be unbeatable
January 21, 2024 at 3:03 AM
Just saw a flock of 4 Kea in a beachside pohukatawa near Abel Tasman park. Maybe these beautiful birds will descend from the mountains if we make space for them
December 26, 2023 at 6:45 AM
Normally it would be exciting to be front page news but it's a pretty mixed feeling with today's story by Jamie Morton in the Herald. I was amongst a group of scientists who spoke to Jamie about the challenges facing the NZ science system. In short, we cannot go on like this
December 17, 2023 at 7:56 PM
Hunting for faults in the TVZ, I think we found one....
December 7, 2023 at 7:13 PM
Do you live in the Rotorua or Taupō districts? Our team is interested in your views of different hazards. By filling out this survey you can help us understand what people think about volcanic, earthquake and other geological and weather events.

The survey is right here: bit.ly/ECLIPSE23
November 27, 2023 at 9:11 PM
Last night I was very proud to receive the McKay Hammer award from the Geoscience Society of New Zealand. It's not often that a geophysicist is trusted with a rock hammer!
November 16, 2023 at 4:30 AM