VORiSA: Volcanic Risk in Saudi Arabia
VORiSA is a collaborative research project between King Abdulaziz University (KAU), The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and The University of Auckland (UoA), New Zealand.
Project Objectives
The primary focus is to increase the collective understanding of Saudi Arabian harrats by conducting an in-depth assessment of volcanic and seismic hazard and risk in Saudi Arabia, and to provide a strategy and rationale for appropriate risk mitigation.
A potentially valuable by-product of the hazard modelling will be to use the data to evaluate the potential for possible ground-water and geothermal resources in the Kingdom.
Research Programme
Theme 1: Geoscientific Model for Harrat Al Madinah
Current understanding of the crustal structure and volcano-seismic risk beneath Madinah will be furthered by geological and geophysical profiling and research. Included in these studies are rock and water sampling programmes, seismic and electromagnetic profiling campaigns, and the implementation of a special borehole-based seismic research network.
A synthesis of both new and existing structural, geochemical and geophysical data of the harrat will provide insight into how the magma reaches the surface. It will also constrain the timing, nature, and depth of precursory seismicity, and provide direct measures of ground response to volcano-seismic activity.
Theme 2: Probabilistic Volcanic and Volcano-Seismic Hazard Model for the city of Madinah
Determining magnitude-frequency (distribution in space and time) relationships for monogenetic volcanic fields such as the harrats of Saudi Arabia and the Auckland Volcanic in New Zealand is a key component of any volcanic risk assessment. Combining this magnitude-frequency information with similar data for ash fall from adjacent Saudi Arabian volcanoes, will assist to realistically determine the volcanic hazard outlook for Madinah in the future.
NZ VORiSA Team
The New Zealand VORiSA team is lead by the University of Auckland and includes volcanic and seismic experts from the Institute of Earth Science and Engineering, University of Auckland's School of Environment, Massey University and the University of Canterbury.
To find out more about this project, please contact: