The Banos Field Trip: Part 1

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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..............