Volcán de Colima is historically the most active volcano in Mexico, directly threatening at least half a million people in the city of Colima and surrounding states. The volcano is the subject of intensive studies and surveillance by local, national and international institutions, requiring close interactions between local scientists and civil protection authorities, as well as the inhabitants of settlements close to the volcano. With the focus of the Cities on Volcanoes conference on the impact of volcanic events on centres of population, Colima was an appropriate location.

Unlike other scientific conferences, the focus of Cities on Volcanoes (an initiative of IAVCEI; International Association for Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior), is to assess the impact of volcanic events on centres of population by considering hazards, monitoring and civil response.  It acts to serve as a conduit for the exchange of ideas and experiences between physical and social scientists and city officials.  As a consequence, there was an interesting combination of interdisciplinary symposia such as:

• Volcanoes and their hazards
• Evaluating volcanic risk
• Volcanic risk reduction in developing countries, and
• Volcanoes, society and government. 

Presentations within these sessions offered eye-opening and differing perspectives on concurrent challenges within Volcanology.  In particular, this conference saw a range of talks that examined the relationships between scientists and decision makers and introduced basic aspects of human rights law (such as rights to life and the public’s right to information); sensitive and complex topics especially relevant in light of the recent verdict of the L'Aquila case (where 7 internationally renowned scientists were convicted of manslaughter as a result of ‘providing inaccurate information’ regarding the April 2009 earthquake that tragically killed over 300 people).

In the themed session ‘The past is the key to the future. What can we learn from volcanic deposits?’, I presented my current research on the Bronze Age eruption of Santorini with a poster entitled ‘Revised estimates for the volume of the Minoan eruption’.  Large caldera-forming eruptions are often associated with different types of deposit.  However, volumes of all these components are rarely estimated which often leads to uncertainties in total volume estimations. The ‘Minoan’ eruption of Santorini is a classic example of this.  This work proposes a significant volume of erupted pyroclastic material subsided into the caldera during collapse which occurred towards the end of the eruption, and has been missed of earlier calculations.  We have estimated the volume of this missing material, and our initial results, in addition to the most recent published estimate, suggest that the volume had previously been underestimated by ~ ⅓.  Consequently, this new volume estimate reveals that the Minoan should now be considered the largest known explosive Holocene eruption, and in addition, offers a mechanism whereby eruption volumes could be significantly underestimated at other caldera volcanoes. 

I received very positive and constructive feedback from several delegates, and the stimulating discussion generated by my poster has enabled me to further develop ideas and future aspects of my research.  Attending CoV provided me with the opportunity to network, make many new friends as well as see old ones, and enabled me to start building relationships with other postgraduate students and lecturers conducting research in similar areas.

The conference itself consisted of four days of oral and poster presentations with an intra-conference fieldtrip to various sites around Colima volcano on the Wednesday.  I was also fortunate enough to participate in the pre-congress workshop ‘Volcanic Ashfall Impacts Working Group and International Volcanic Health Hazard Network’, and the post-congress excursion on the ‘Holocene evolution of the Colima Volcanic Complex’.  The latter involved examining various deposits produced from Colima throughout the Holocene and an ascent to near the summit of Nevado de Colima (4000 meters above sea level).  Although a cold and cloudy climb, the clouds cleared minutes before our descent to reveal spectacular views of Colima volcano with the new (2007-2011) lava dome!

To summarise, the conference was fantastic and the presence of Volcanologists from all over the world gave the conference a fun, truly international, educative and academically stimulating atmosphere. As a result of the positive feedback received at the conference, I am presently writing up this research which I plan to submit for publication in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

Thanks once again to the Cabot Institute for making it possible for me to attend CoV7.

Case study by Emma Johnston (Earth Sciences).

This award was made under the Volcano and Society small awards following the launch of Kathy Cashman's AXA funded Chair.