“Deploying passive seismic instruments by helicopter is very similar to deploying by 4WD except that it’s louder, faster and a smoother ride (no pot holes!) apart from turbulence on windy days.”

— Ben Vincent Kay (BVK)

“The biggest highlight for me was seeing how much the country was able to bounce back from the 2017 drought, which I got to see first-hand during a geophysical research project in the region at that time.

The two photos, one from July 2017 during El Niño and the second from June 2022 during La Niña highlight the stark contrast that rainfall and temperature has on our climate.”

— BVK

“How fast we’re travelling was dependent on the tailwinds (the wind blowing in the direction of travel) or headwinds (the wind blowing against the direction of travel) with speeds ranging from 170 to 220 km/h as the graph below shows where we travelled 790 km in a just over 7 hours.

To give you an idea of the distances we were travelling in a single day, Adelaide to Melbourne by car is around 730 km at 8 hours of driving but we covered more ground in less time while still stopping at 22 sites to deploy passive seismic instruments due to the speeds we were travelling at.”

— BVK