The Banos Field Trip: Part 2

The Smoking Tungurahua

It was around the time of the Banos field course that both John Lyons and I finally got our visas to work. In the past I had obtained Ecuadorian work visas and never once was it an easy process to go through. This time around was no different. There are so many required documents to collect, rules and laws to follow, sweat and blood to shed - and then, when you think you are ready to go and hand in all your papers - the government go and change the whole process and you basically have to start all over. It feels like a never ending cycle of red-tape. After some months of painful document collecting though, both of us submitted everything that we possibly could and we were finally approved to work. It had been a long process but we had made it!!!

After a week of work at the IG (and visa making for me) it was back down to Banos for Juan, Hugo, Andrea and myself, to complete our final week of the field course that we began 14 days prior. We got back into our groups and took out our monitoring site equipment, careful first to make sure that we had saved and stored all the data. We were put into pairs to work on a mini project, using programs such as Matlab to analyse and manipulate the seismo-acoustic information and come up with some interesting results. I was paired up with Ashton, a bright guy who was noticeable for the unbelievable amount of tattoos that he possessed. We worked on a project of detecting events automatically and then calculating some parameters of the volcanic signals that we had found.

During the week we also had presentations from various professors from the States and from Ecuador. We went out every night to eat in a different restaurant and have a few drinks in one of the local bars. The days were mainly spent in our hostel working on the projects. There were some opportunities to get out though. A few days we went out in the field to look at rock formations of volcanic deposits such as pyroclastic or debris flows, that had once devastated the area surrounding the volcano. We had a tour of the Tungurahua volcano observatory (of which I already knew pretty well) and on another day we spent some time looking at a super-concentrated volcanic flow which had just formed off one of the drainage systems of Tungurahua. It is similar to a lahar but by no means nearly as powerful or damaging. We were able to get up pretty close. We also went up to a lookout point to observe Tungurahua one evening. We all took beers with us for the show. It was an amazing sight as we had views of Tungurahua, Chimborazo and a whole number of other volcanic peaks.

At the end of the week each pair presented their results to the group, and that was the course done. We went out for one final night where we all drank a few more beverages than usual and chatted about many a random story. It had been a good few weeks in Banos. I had met some interesting people, learnt a great deal and generally had a good time. Each of us from the IG group were also going to receive 2 US university credit hours from New Mexico Tech. It was very exciting although at the time I had absolutely no idea what they were.

The weeks after the Banos trip I kept in contact with Dr. Jeff Johnson about starting the application for a PhD. Jeff had recently moved to Boise State University in Idaho and wanted me to follow him there. It was something I needed to talk with Maisa about but I was keen to do it. A few days after the Banos trip another thing happened. An old friend was returning. Grace had come back from her English studies in Canada some time ago but now her boyfriend was returning. Henry was landing in to Quito for more madness and mayhem. He was a good friend and I was glad he was going to be around for the next few months. He was also bringing along his cousin - Anousha, who I would soon find out was as loopy as Henry himself...............

The Banos Field Trip: Part 1

All In

Dr. Jeffrey Johnson had come back to Ecuador for the 35th time. Okay, so I don't actually know if he had been 34 times before but he certainly knew the country well. That I was sure of. The professor from New Mexico Tech University was teaching a 3 week field course in Banos, based on field techniques in the installation of volcano monitoring equipment and the analysis of the collected data. He had brought around 20 students with him. Four of us from the IG (me included) were also asked to join; to help out the students (as we were well accustomed to the ways of South America) but also to learn ourselves. The four of us however were only invited to weeks one and three, which was the main installation and data analysis part. Week two (in the middle) was only for travelling around to see the many Ecuadorian volcanoes the country had to offer, of which the IG group already knew pretty well. The four of us were also asked to each make a presentation to the group of students on the volcano data that we had been working on.

The group was nice enough. They had come from universities all over the States and even some from outside North America. Everyone was keen to learn and enjoy themselves at the same time. The first week consisted of our seismo-acoustic installation. We had five main sites that made up our array. Each site had a seismometer and an acoustic microphone, both used simultaneously for detecting volcano signals. The sites were located close to one another around one large field, high up on the flanks of Tungurahua volcano. The idea was to split up into groups and each install a station site, under the supervision of Jeff Johnson, Mario Ruiz (my boss at the IG) and help from John Lyons who was also working at the institute. Once each station was installed we would have our completed array and would then return to the stations a week or so later to see what data we had collected. I was confident the data would be interesting as Tungurahua was active and I was sure that we would at least see an explosion or two at the volcano. Actually, we didn't have to worry, as one morning while everyone was in bed at the local Banos hostel half the group was woken up by an explosion.

During that first week I presented my research to the group. It was based on explosion events at Tungurahua volcano, so the topic couldn't have been more relevant. The talk went well and it had impressed Jeff enough to talk to me later that evening about the possibility of me undertaking a PhD, with himself as supervisor. It was something I was keen to find out more about and over the next few weeks I discussed this subject further with him.

The week had been quite intense. We were out in the field for most of the days and listening to presentations or reading scientific journals at night. We did have some time to head out into Banos, to eat at the many restaurants, drink in a few of the bars or swim in the pool at the hostel. The trip for myself and the other 3 at the IG was also funded - so we could work and play hard and all at little personal cost. It was a fun week and I was glad to becoming back again, in just 7 days time..............