Volcanoes of Aotearoa
Like Duolingo, but for Volcanoes of Aotearoa. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
For the part of you with thirty open tabs that never became anything.
21 levels across 3 sections, about 42 minutes end to end, roughly 8 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Reading the Volcanic Landscape, Eruptive Styles and Hazards, and The Deep Drivers. It assumes you already know the basics.
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Key ideas in Volcanoes of Aotearoa
- Scoria cones are monogenetic, meaning they have a one-off supply of magma
- Stratovolcanoes are polygenetic, erupting repeatedly over thousands of years
- Future Auckland eruptions will likely form a brand new cone elsewhere
- Height is built by alternating layers of solidified lava and tephra ash
- Calderas form when the ground collapses into an emptied magma chamber
- Maars like Lake Pupuke are created by phreatomagmatic steam explosions
- Taupō's scale is due to structural collapse, not just an explosive blast
- The explosion blasts a wide, shallow hole below the original ground level
- Distinguishing a caldera from a standard crater
- Lava domes form from high-viscosity 'toothpaste' lava that cannot flow
- The silica-rich rhyolite or dacite lava piles up directly over the vent
- Recognizing the specific conditions that create a maar
- Identifying the characteristics of a lava dome eruption
- Auckland sits on a mantle hotspot where magma punches through the crust at random points
- The field is monogenetic, meaning each eruption creates a brand new vent rather than reusing an old one
- Identifying the growth mechanism of stratovolcanoes like Taranaki
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives Volcanoes of Aotearoa the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
What does it mean when we call a big mountain like Taranaki a 'polygenetic' volcano?
Get it right to open this lesson and 20 more in the app.
Where Volcanoes of Aotearoa takes you
Explore the explosive history and unique geology of New Zealand's volcanic landscapes, from Auckland's urban cones to the supervolcanoes of the Taupō Volcanic Zone.
- 1
Reading the Volcanic Landscape
- Identifying NZ Landforms
- Living on the Auckland Volcanic Field
- 2
Eruptive Styles and Hazards
- Explosive vs. Effusive Power
- Geothermal Systems and Steam
- Monitoring and Warning Systems
- 3
The Deep Drivers
- The Hikurangi Subduction Zone
- The Taupō Volcanic Zone (TVZ)
3 sections · 7 units · 21 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
You pick the voice
Volcanoes of Aotearoa is taught in the Explain Like I'm 5 style: no big words. promise.. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start Volcanoes of Aotearoa today.
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