When
Professor Steve Sparks moved to Bristol from Cambridge in 1989 to take up the
Chair of Geology in the School of Earth Sciences little did he know what was in
store for him. His time at Bristol would see him advise the
government and become one of the most cited scientists of all time.
Sparks’s
extraordinary journey as head of the volcanology group has lead it to study
volcanism on every continent and has allowed it to grow from one man to a
thriving collective of staff, researchers and students. The world-class science
produced by the group has resulted in it receiving the Queen’s Anniversary Prize;
the highest accolade in higher education.
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| Professor Kathy Cashman accepting the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher Education |
Naturally,
this evolution has been heavily influenced by volcanoes. Unlike many sciences, the progress of
volcanology can be episodic- driven by key eruptions and crises. For the
Bristol group, two events have defined their work which has, in turn, altered
the course of the science:
The eruption
on the Island of Montserrat lasted from 1995 to 1997, killed 23 people and
displaced several thousand. As
Montserrat is a British dependant territory, the British government was closely
engaged in managing the crisis and wasted little time roping in Bristol’s
volcanic expertise as Sparks explains: “Bristol was a key partner in
establishing the Volcano Observatory on the island and several Bristol staff
and PhD students were involved in the monitoring effort in the first few
years.” This partnership has continued for the past two decades with Professors
Sparks and Aspinall acting as directors of the observatory and heading up the
advisory committee ever since. In addition, the research resulting from the eruption
has contributed invaluable information to the science of volcanology including
causes of volcanic cyclicity and eruptions.
More
recently in 2010, the Eyjafjallajokull ash crisis cost the European economy $5
billion through the closure of airspace. In the midst of the decision-making surrounding
this closure was a SAGE (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) meeting attended
by six volcanologists, of which three were from Bristol. Bristol’s Professor
Willy Aspinall, was one of the three called to advise, alongside Dr Matt Watson
and Professor Sparks. He described the meeting as a ‘spectrum of people working
in many areas from civil aviation to defence’.
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| Eruption column above Eyjafjallajokull |
The role
Bristol played was pivotal in the national response and was a turning point for
the group as a whole as Watson explains ‘Eyja changed how we operated.
Volcanology had previously comprised mostly of research produced for other
researchers, but this was the first time we could use it practically in a
crisis’.
Indeed, not
only did it highlight the need for more applied approach to volcanology, it
also prompted whole new field of research on volcanic ash involving analysis of
ash deposits and advances in remote sensing techniques. Such challenges were met head on by the group
that has a huge breadth of research capabilities, from geophysics to geochemistry
to petrology.
Looking to
the future, the group’s challenge is to be prepared for new eruptions, wherever
they may be. The researchers are working
in regions all over the world including countries such as Guatemala and
Ethiopia. Bristol volcanologists hope to expand this aspect of their research
through opportunities such as the Global Challenges Research Fund which will
draw together expertise from all corners of the group to address volcanic
challenges in less developed nations.
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| Keri McNamara looking at a volcanic air fall deposit in Ethiopia, alongside some of the locals |
In recent
years, Sparks has stepped down as the head of the group allowing for the
appointment of Professor Kathy Cashman as AXA professor of volcanology and the
group’s new lead. Now, 27 years after it
began, the group is not showing any signs of slowing down. The question is,
when will next episode in the group’s history erupt?
This blog is
written by Cabot Institute member Keri
McNamara, a PhD student in the School of Earth Sciences at
the University of Bristol.
Thank you to
Alison Rust, Kathy Cashman, Matt Watson, Willy Aspinall and Steve Sparks for
providing information for this blog.