Volcanic emissions of environmentally-reactive trace elements

"Over 29 million people live within 10 km of active volcanoes, and ~800 million within 100 km. Within this distance people can be exposed to multiple volcanic hazards. Individual volcanoes can emit as much of potentially toxic elements (PTE) as total anthropogenic activities in large industrialised countries (Fig 1). Depending on the meteorological conditions, eruptions can expose populated areas to highly variable and potentially dangerous concentrations of PTE.

This PhD project will be one of the first research studies to look at the atmospheric dispersion and lifetime of these important pollutants.

You will do fieldwork on actively degassing volcanoes to collect samples of PTE at-source, and at different distances downwind. You will also apply computer models to simulate the dispersion and atmospheric lifetime in the atmosphere. Finally, you will apply GIS and air pollution models in order to understand the impact on overall air quality and population exposures in communities.

The fieldwork site will be chosen near the start of the PhD based on the current volcanic activity. Likely fieldsites at Iceland, Hawaii, Central America, South Pacific islands, and/or Reunion.