Exercise Ruamoko in 2008

Last month a series of tremors under Auckland culminated in a devastating volcanic eruption. The explosive blast shattered windows, damaged buildings, killed and injured people in a three-kilometre radius from the eruption site. If you missed that news, it's probably because this was hypothetical volcano, created by geologists for a real-time national disaster preparedness exercise, called Exercise Ruaumoko. Dacia Herbulock speaks to Jan Lindsey of the University of Auckland and Steve Sherburn of GNS Science about their role in the event, and about scientists' contributions to natural disaster planning - in theory and in real life. Our Changing World segment 10 April 2008