Home time!

I'm a bit sad to leave Armenia! It's been a really great trip and everyone here is absolutely lovely! But my backs are packed and full of rock samples..... here are a few more photos from the last couple of weeks...............................

The team.....................................................................................

Thunder and mental driving!

Holy crap! We were caught in some incredible storms today! We were wandering around at 3000m when I looked up and there were about 10 falcon type birds coming towards us, and behind them the sky was black. A few minutes later it started peeing it down and there was a flash of lightning and an almighty crack of thunder. I swear my heart was racing so much I thought it was going to burst out my chest. I was bricking it! I looked about to see that we were on a plateau and with 2 guys shorter than me, I was the tallest thing in the field! Suddenly I developed a stoop....

We had lunch in a dry spell and laid everything out on a nice big flat rock. I was just tucking into my second sandwich when the sky went very dark and the thunder and lightning started again. As the rain got heavier we all bolted for the car apart from Gagik who decided to stay and finish his lunch. Then the hail started and he was in like a shot!! The storm lasted a good 20 minutes. The land rover was was of 5 people, 2 of them big guys, and it was rocking like mad in the wind. Ahead of us just a little bit down slope the sky was split with an incredible fork lightning and something on the ground burst into flames. Did a cow get hit? There are no trees....

We slid our way back down the mountain, as the roads are all dirt tracks and the land rover tires are old and have no tread! Having spent the last 10 or so days driving like a suicidal maniac, my hopes weren't that high of us getting off the mountain in one piece however Gagik managed it no problem and showed he is actually a very good driver!

Contrasts...

We were in the arse end of nowhere today. It was unbelievable the contrast to Yerevan - they pump all the money into Yerevan and forget about the rest of it. We went to the Turkey-Armenia border where villages are abandoned and those which are inhabited are run down, the houses with boarded up windows and walls falling down. The few people who live there, eye us suspiciously while they get on with tending animals and hanging out washing. Many of the men are playing cards and smoking, while the woman get on with cooking, cleaning etc. When Ivan asked about it, we were told that they are all unemployed and they basically live off the land. The factories which used to provide employment and once made this area quite rich have all been closed down because of the fighting across the border. There are discussions now to open the border. The decision will go to the Turkish government later this year.



Village near the border...........................................Yerevan


There is a journalist from Turkey staying in the same hotel as us, and she writes about the Armenian-Turkish conflict. We told her about wanting to cross the border because there is an incredible tephra fallout deposit which implies there must have been an enormous Plinian eruption - like Vesuvius, except about 100 times bigger! It is right on the border, and unfortunately we can't do much with it because you need at least 2 outcrops to work out the distance and direction from the volcano, and the other outcrops must be in Turkey! She was very interested in this as it gives another story as to why the border should be open, so she interviewed us!


After summit day we took it easy - still long days but not difficult ones! Chuck, Laura and Ralf left early this morning, so the director of the geological institute took everyone out for dinner. There were about 20 folk there and enough food to feed the 500! Armenians love to do toasts. They toasted the project, the people, the drivers, Armenia, Women, safe journeys, future work, meetings..... it went on and on! Every few minutes someone else would stand up and say a few words - usually quite a lot of words - and raise his glass. At one point I had a glass of Russian Vodka, a glass of wine and a glass of Cognac in front of me! Needless to say I wasn't on best form in the field today!

Summit day!!

Amazing! Absolutely amazing!! The top of Aragatz used to have one massive caldera, but an enormous explosive eruption blasted away a lot of it leaving 4 peaks, each reaching about 4000m.

We walked up the Southern peak first as Ivan wasn't sure if we'd be able to get up the Western peak as it was really cloudy, and we could hear thunder rumbling not too far away. At first the crater was filled with cloud, but suddenly it cleared a bit and we could see patches of the crater floor - I was grinning from ear-to-ear. I still am!

Then we went down a bit and scrambled round to the Western peak. At the time it didn't seem too bad, but walking back, I turned to look where we crossed - all I can say is Ivan is nuts!! The Western peak has an easier way up but we chose the near vertical one scrambling over loose blocks on hands and feet! With the horizontal hail blasting our faces, I was cursing Ivan, until he yelled at me to join him near the edge and we got the most awesome view of fresh snow covering the Northern peak right down into the crater. It was breath-taking.....

Srambling up! The views.....................................................

Ivan flying! Me on the summit

Desert again...

Today was the first day I actually wanted to leave the field as soon as possible! We were working down in the desert area near the nuclear power plant. I was so hot all my energy was sapped within a couple of hours. And following the routine so far, we had lunch at 4.30!

But we went out with Chuck again which is great because he knows so much and he answers all my stupid questions! We looked at some pyroclastic flow deposits and had lots of discussion on whether the deposits are the same and we were seeing a transition or whether they were different deposits. It was both reassuring and disheartening. Reassuring because everyone had a different opinion and no-one knew the answer, so I didn't feel stupid when I pitched in, and disheartening because if these guys with all their years of experience don't know, how the hell am I supposed to????

Chuck's wife Laura is here too. She is a computer scientist, but often joins him on these trips and has become well known in the volcanology world in her own right. She knows a lot about tephra deposits and asks lots of difficult questions to make everyone think outside the box! They make a really great team and are good fun to be around.

Half a kilo of meat

Man, do the Armenians know how to do a barbeque! After our hike in the North of Armenia, we got back to the landrover at 6pm absolutely starving having not eaten since breakfast. Gagik, our driver handed round fresh peaches and coffee, and handed me a massive bunch of flowers which he had picked while waiting for us!

Then Hachik got down to the serious business of preparing the BBQ. He got the fire going then pulled out some eggplants and stuck them on skewers whole and shoved them on top of the fire. He did the same with whole peppers and tomatoes, and then the meat. As he was pulling out more and more, Ivan asked him how much he had bought - "Normally in Armenia we buy half a kilo of meat per person" he replies! Ivan and I apologise saying there's now way we can eat that much..... there was one small piece of meat left, an eggplant, a tomato and a pepper!!!!

A little bit about Armenia...

I am loving this - definitely the right decision!

Anyway I spent the last couple of days with Ivan, Ralf and Hachik (an Armenian volcanologist) up on the flanks of Aragatz Volcano at 2000-3000m. It's massive. It covers 18% of Armenia and it measures about 100km across. It's a big shield volcano which is a big flat volcano with gentle slopes, but this is a complex one as a second phase of activity created a stratovolcano (a classic conical volcano) right on top. So although we were on it, we were a good 20km from the top, looking at some lava flows and some of the many mini-volcanoes on Aragatz' flanks. Brilliant!




We met a lot of Kurdish people today. They have a semi-nomadic existence, living in the high altitudes in tents with their cattle or sheep during the summer months and moving down to the villages for the harsh winter months. Every-so-often we would come across another tent or group of tents, and stop to ask for directions - there are roads everywhere so that they can get the milk from the cattle down to the villages below to sell. All of them invited us to drink coffee with them, and when we stopped to look at some outcrop they would come wandering over, desperate to chat. They all have these massive dogs to watch the cattle - I swear one of them today was possessed by the devil, it had really evil eyes! The last one we stopped at, coffee was brought out for us - rocket fuel. It was like drinking a sweet coffee grain paste!



Armenia used to be one of the Soviet States and it borders Turkey to the West, Georgia to the North, Iran to the South and Azerbaijan to the East. You can see the Soviet influence everywhere from the architecture to every second car being a Lada! Armenia is a country of contrasts - the capital, Yerevan (where we are staying), is like any other rich European city. As soon as you leave it you hit poverty. People live in run down stone houses, villages are full of hens and sheep running around with children all covered in dirt. Off the main highway the "roads" are dirt tracks. And people earn a living selling fruit they grow in orchards at the side of the main highway. It's like entering a different country - there's no half way, they either have lots of money, or none.

Also the countryside varies massively from the dry desert with stifling temperatures of +30°C and very little vegetation, to the high altitude alpine environment with wild flowers and grasses, and temperatures below 0°C at night.

Water shortage!!!!!

Today I went out in the field with Ivan, Ralf (a German geochemist/petrologist) and Givork (an Armenian geologist who did his PhD on the pyroclastic flow deposits of one of the 1000+ volcanoes in Armenia!!).



We went to check out some of the volcanoes about 4km from the Nuclear Power Plant site. It was absolutely roasting. It's a desert with temperatures of around 30-35°C, and in stead of cooling down in the afternoon, it heats up so that by 5 o'clock, it's unbearable. Right when we ran out of water! Nice one! Note for the future, 2 litres of water each isn't enough!

We walked along the tops of 6 volcanic cones which form a semi-circle with lava flows and pyroclastic flow deposits in the middle. Ivan pointed out loads of textures and rock types and was showing me how to read the landscape and talking about different types of eruptions etc to "brush up on my volcanology" which is excellent considering I've never been taught it!

We found an amazing outcrop of a "frozen" lava lake! There were these swirling patterns where magma was mixing, and at the top there were waves of lava trying to erupt through the country rock - very cool!

First day in the field!

Today was my first day being a Volcanologist! It was GREAT! OK, to be fair I spent the whole day following other volcanologists around and taking notes, but after 2 and a half years of an office job it was brilliant to be in the field again!

Armenia is a very tectonically active country and actually sits on the junction of 3 plates - the country has experienced devastating earthquakes and every hill or mountain to be seen is a volcanic vent of some sort. Every elongated hill is a lava flow, and every plain in between is a tuff or pyroclastic flow deposit. Although geologically speaking these volcanoes are active, they are not currently erupting or have done in the past 10 000 years. They are considered active geologically speaking because any one of them could re-awaken and give the locals (and volcanologists worldwide) something to really worry about!!

Ivan is working here along with an excellent team of volcanologists from all over the world and Armenia on a volcanic hazards project. The government want to build a Nuclear Power Plant, and they need to know what the volcanic risks are, i.e. whether there will be an eruption, and if so what are the risks of being wiped out by a pyroclastic flow, or a lava flow or ash blocking the vents and so on.

So today we went to look at tephra fallout deposits (ash and pumice - very light and airy volcanic glass which fall from a large eruption column) and collect some samples for analysis. Chuck Connor, a big burley American volcanologist led us around - he's basically a world class volcanologist who has worked all over the world on Tephra deposits, so for this, he's the man. And I was writing in my notebook like a maniac! I learnt so much today!

I have to mention lunch because it was so amazing! I'm used to sitting on a rock somewhere and pulling out a squashed sandwich, and bruised banana and a bottle of water (sometimes I go all out and have juice!). Not today. A tarp was spread out and on it, a feast! All sorts of fresh cheeses, and meats, tomatoes, peppers, herbs, fresh bread... and a bottle of wine!! First of all we toasted volcanologists, and Chuck raised his glass again and toasted the next generation of volcanologists (that's me!!!!)

The beginning...

Hello and welcome to my blog! I've been meaning to do this for the past week, but 13 hour field days and beer drinking has left me too shattered to speak let alone type!

I will try and update it with photos and chat as often as I can, but seeing as it's taken me a week to start I can't guarantee anything!!! I'm back dating a bit (I only just noticed I can do this!) so hopefully I won't go on too much!

If you're reading this then I most likely emailed you and are therefore family and friends - I'm glad you've decided to take a look and hopefully you'll enjoy this! I figured it's a great way to keep everyone up to date with where I am and what I'm up to and you can dip in and out whenever and don't feel like you have to respond to another group email!

If you're a random who stumbled across this, then again, I am glad you decided to take a look and hopefully you will enjoy it!

If you're a Volcanologist and I'm making things up, then sorry and please don't think bad of me! (Also can I have a job at the end of my PhD???)

I started my PhD on Volcanology on 1st September, which began with a day of meetings in Armenia with my supervisor, Ivan Savov and a team of volcanologists and geologists he is working with out here. My PhD is actually studying the history of Colima Volcano in Mexico by collecting samples and doing some lab analyses. The work Ivan is doing in Armenia is similar and presented a perfect way to introduce me to the world of volcanology and also teach me techniques I'll use in the near future.