New Zealand Scholarship Earth and Space Science case studies
New Zealand Scholarship Earth and Space Science · Put your knowledge to work in context.
New Zealand Scholarship Earth and Space Science is an externally assessed NZQA Scholarship examination for secondary students who want to be recognised for advanced work in Earth and space science. It is aimed at candidates who can handle ideas well beyond Level 3 coursework: they should be comfortable moving between the geosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere, between solid-Earth processes and planetary science, and between data and argument. The New Zealand Scholarship Earth and Space Science case studies are 5 cases and about 2,944 words.
1Slip rate on a silent fault
LiDAR strips across the Tāwhiri Range, South Island, reveal a 15 km-long fault trace cutting three fluvial terraces. The terraces are offset vertically by 12 ± 1 m (T3), 45 ± 3 m (T2) and 90 ± 5 m (T1).
719 words, about 4 min2A shrinking glacier, a greening lake
Lake Ōkārito is a proglacial lake fed by a retreating valley glacier. A 1.2 m sediment core contains annual varves spanning 1870–2020.
589 words, about 3 min3A low-density planet in the habitable zone?
An M-dwarf star of 0.80 M☉ and 0.75 R☉ (Teff 4800 K) shows a periodic 1.20% dimming every 12.30 days. The transit lasts 3.1 hours and has a flat bottom.
554 words, about 3 min4A warm patch of ocean with no bloom
An ocean mooring at 45°S records a marine heatwave in austral summer 2019. Sea-surface temperature is 3.2°C above the 1991–2020 climatology for 45 days.
525 words, about 3 min5A boundary core with two signals
A marine drill core from the southern Indian Ocean spans the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary at 80 m depth. Background iridium is 0.1 ppb; a 2 cm clay layer at the boundary contains 8.5 ppb Ir, 15 shocked-quartz grains per cm3, and nickel-rich spinels.
557 words, about 3 min