Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Review of the BGS myVolcano iPhone app

May 6, 2014

A few months ago, Elspeth posted a review of her top geology-themed mobile phone apps. Since then, the resourceful folk at the British Geological Survey (BGS) have come up with a new contender; here we take a look at myVolcano.

myVolcano

Any self-respecting app needs a jazzy icon. Photo credit: myVolcano/British Geological Survey

Before we get started, the important details: myVolcano is free to download but is only currently available on Apple’s iOS (an Android version is in the pipeline). You can download it here.

The main driver behind the app is to allow the BGS to collect data about volcanic hazards through observations made by the general public. This concept is known as citizen science, and is becoming increasingly useful to researchers. For example, the USGS and the BGS have webpages where anybody can submit details if they experience an earth tremor; the results are then made openly available as ‘Felt location maps’. In the same way, myVolcano is built to allow you to submit observations about volcanic hazards and ashfall.

info

Screenshots of the myVolcano interface on iOS 7. Photo credit: Charly Stamper/British Geological Survey

The app interface itself is refreshingly sleek and intuitive to use. All the app’s features centre around a map that is populated with entries from the Smithsonian Institution Global Volcanism Program databse. That’s a huge amount of data (1,550 volcanoes and 10,000 years of eruptions, to be precise) made freely available at your fingertips. Each volcano entry features a geological background, details of the last known eruption and a photo.

maps

Screenshots from the myVolcano app. From L-R: Excellent demonstration of the ‘Ring of Fire’; example of a database entry; example of a user submitted observation. Photo credit: Charly Stamper/British Geological Survey

Now, for those of us living in the UK, the chances of us witnessing volcanic phenomena at home are pretty rare; however, it is not uncommon for ash particles from distant eruptions to settle on our shores (e.g., ashfall from Eyjafjallajökull, 2010, was recorded as far south as the Midlands). Data from such distal deposits can be used by geologists to help understand how ash plumes travel and disperse. myVolcano talks you through how to submit measurements and photos of just such an ash fall. This record is then plotted on the world map using the GPS on your phone and can be viewed by other users of the app.

In truth, it’s worth downloading this app purely to access the Smithsonian database on your phone. Whether the citizen science aspect of myVolcano really takes off remains to be seen…where’s that simmering Icelandic volcano when you need it?

Science Snap (#26): Angel Falls, Venezuela

May 1, 2014

Sorcha McMahon is a third year PhD student in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol. Sorcha is investigating how strange igneous rocks called carbonatites may have formed, using both natural samples and high-pressure experiments.

Canaima National Park. Photo credit: Sorcha McMahon

Angel Falls is the world’s highest uninterrupted waterfall in the Canaima National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site in the Gran Sabana region of Bolívar State, in Venezuela. The waterfall drops from the summit of the largest tepui (table-top mountain) of the Guiana Highlands of South America, Auyantepui, from a height of 979 m.

Angel Falls is said to have inspired the setting of the Disney animated film Up (2009) where the location is called Paradise Falls. The nearby Mount Roraima inspired the Scottish author Arthur Conan Doyle to write his novel The Lost World about the discovery of a living prehistoric world full of dinosaurs and primeval plants. The borders of Venezuela, Brazil, and Guyana meet on the top of this tepui, which translates to “house of the gods” in the native tongue of the Pemon, the indigenous people who inhabit the Gran Sabana. Tepuis host a unique array of endemic plant and animal species, with ~1/3 of the plants found nowhere else on the planet.

Angel Falls, Venezuela. It is also known as "Kerepakupai Vená" in the original indigenous Pemon language, meaning "waterfall of the deepest place".

Angel Falls, Venezuela. It is also known as “Kerepakupai Vená” in the original indigenous Pemon language, meaning “waterfall of the deepest place”. Photo credit: Sorcha McMahon

The extraordinary topography is part of the Guiana Shield, and began as the Great Plains; an igneous-metamorphic basement formed during the Precambrian as part of the supercontinent Gondwanaland (approx. 3.6 – 1.2 Ga). Subsequently, sedimentary layers were deposited between ~1.6 – 1 billion years ago; the characteristic purple quartzite and sandstone strata probably represent shallow seas or large inland lake facies. Doleritic and granitic magmas of Palaeozoic and Mesozoic times are observed to penetrate existing sediments in places.

The region has experienced great fluctuations in climate and several periods of uplift and subsidence over millions of years. The presence of isolated table-top mountains is due to relative differences in erosion, which has created such spectacular scenery.

From landfill to jet fuel: the plastic panacea?

April 25, 2014

Last week British Airways announced that the world’s first sustainable aviation fuel plant will be built in Thurrock, Essex. The airline claims that 575,000 tonnes of plastic waste, otherwise destined for landfill or incineration, will be converted into 120,000 tonnes of liquid fuel each year. According to BA, that’s enough to power the annual flights from London City Airport, twice over. The concept of converting landfill waste into jet fuel sounds like something out of a science fiction film, but in fact, relies on two long-standing techniques.

Landfill to jet fuel

From landfill to jet fuel: could plastic pyrolysis reduce our reliance on fossil fuels? Photo credit: (L) David Dodge, (R) Flickr user Eddie.

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