EGU: A First Impression

The European Geosciences Union (EGU) is the most established geosciences organisation in Europe. Created in September 2002 as a merger of the European Geophysical Society and European Union of Geosciences, EGU now hosts over 17 different scientific journals and has over 12,500 members from students all the way up to retired seniors. However, EGU is probably most well known for its Annual General Assembly, which is the biggest geosciences event in Europe. Held in April every year, it attracts over 1,100 scientists to attend its event from all over the globe. This year, I had the chance to attend EGU as a representative of Bristol Earth Science's Diamond group. This was my first multidisciplinary international conference and with just six weeks of planning (I was asked to attend at fairly short notice), I couldn't wait to tick this off my academia bucket list.  

In 2017, EGU brought together 14,496 scientists from 107 countries (two from Bangladesh, woo!) to Vienna, Austria. Since the first General Assembly in France, it has now always been held in the Austria Centre Vienna (the largest conference centre in Austria). Participants are in charge of arranging their own accommodation and transport but luckily EGU provides a free public transport pass during the days of the conference and it's easy to get to the centre via the U-Bahn (stop Kaisermuhlen). I actually made the mistake of thinking that the conference was held at the Vienna International Centre so when I exited the station, I saw a huge crowd turning left and walking into the "visitor" entrance of the VIC. So like a fool, I followed them into the security check. This should have set alarm bells in my head but instead I was naive enough to think "Huh, this is pretty high level security for a geology conference". None of the guards thought my presence was odd even though everyone else in the queue was at least twenty years older than me and it wasn't until I made it all the way through that I realised I was in the UN centre... d'oh! After a smooth exit and a lost in translation moment (damn, five years of German did not pay off), I found myself at the correct venue.

At the entrance of the EGU General Assembly

With almost 5,000 oral presentations and over 11,000 posters, EGU can be overwhelming for newcomers, especially early career scientists. The EGU General Assembly website posts the programme on their website and you can filter the events by division, date and time. The best part of the website is that you are able to build your own personal programme by "starring" the talks you are interested in. The only criticism I have for the personal programme is that if you have quite a few sessions you are interested in and they overlap in time, the list design can make it difficult to plan. If I had more time, I would have made a timetable but perhaps it's something the EGU web designers can integrate into the website.

It was the session titled "What do diamonds and their inclusions tell us about processes in the deep Earth" that lured me to the EGU General Assembly. Although it was a small session, it had speakers from the US, France, Italy and Amsterdam. Conferences are a great way to see the current research and progress that has been made in your subject but also to keep check of what you know: when you're a PhD student, it can be easy to focus your reading in a certain direction. In the recent years of diamond research, there's been a lot of progress in the understanding of diamond forming fluids-melts (DFFM) and Graham Pearson's talk showed that DFFM found in fibrous diamonds have also been found in monocrystalline diamonds, suggesting that both the diamonds were formed through the same process(es) and went on to suggest that perhaps trace elements in fluid inclusions can be used to "identify" diamonds.  

I also took advantage of exploring other fields and dropped into talks ranging from studies into craters on Ceres to the impact of North Atlantic warming on European Summers in the early 20th century and even more familiar topics such as evidence of magmatism in Burma during the Cretaceous and Cenozoic. How much I gained from the talks really depended on the level of technicality and enthusiasm of the speaker, for example I didn't enjoy much of the talks on Kimberlites as I expected to (despite being the sessions most related to my field) but quite a few geophysical talks were really insightful. Regardless of your scientific background, I would encourage everyone to attend as many of the talks presented by EGU medal and award winners. I'm not sure if they aim for their presentations to be accessible to general audiences but I found all the ones I attended really easy to follow and every speaker was so passionate about their subject which reverberated in their talks. I would warn members next year to get to your favourite talks early because there were a number of cases where a talk was too popular and members were blocked from attending.

"Make Facts Great Again" symposium

As it has such a large attendance with members from a range of experiences, EGU is able to hold quite a few "union wide" events everyday and these include sessions on outreach, networking and debates. Initially, I never investigated these events because I was so focused on the academic talks but while I was at EGU, I was kicking myself for missing out on certain talks or prioritising one event over another. Some of the great debates and symposiums are based on how the scientific community can progress (such as the "Make Facts Great Again" symposium about how the scientist can engage with the general public - I was very unsatisfied with this talk, more on it another time) while others are about changing the structure of academia (group debate about if ECS should be judged on their publications). There are also chances to meet fellow Earth Scientist bloggers and tweeters as well as opportunities to explore your creative side with poetry and photography sessions. The special scientific events are really what makes EGU enjoyable.

Obligatory selfie with my first poster presentation in an International Conference

Every day, the Exhibition Halls host posters of the sessions that were held earlier in the day. You can view the posters any time of the day but if you want to speak to authors, the best time to come drop in is between 5 - 7 pm when scientists are required to stand by their posters. This was my moment to shine because I was specifically at EGU to present my results on lithospheric diamonds. Although a poster isn't as prestigious as a talk, the main advantage is that you're more likely to interact and receive feedback from other scientists. Speakers are only given 15 minutes to present including Q&A and I noticed that the majority of speakers actually didn't have enough time to answer any questions. During the poster session, I managed to personally meet quite a few scientists in my field and discuss my work and have the odd debate over a contentious summary. I actually found this the best way to network especially as someone who is very shy and didn't have their supervisor to introduce them to others.

One of the many networking events at the General Assembly

For some, EGU is their favourite conference while for others it's an experience only worth one visit in their academic career. The types of sessions are so diverse and how much you will get out of it will depend on your field of research: for a petrologist like me studying silicates in diamonds, there was only one session relevant to me but volcanologists on the other hand may find there is a lot to gain from the conference. This could make networking very difficult - every young scientist I met prior to my session was a Climate Scientist. The EGU conference however is great if you have a broad interest in Geosciences and would like to understand what is happening in a variety of fields or you are interested in extra-curriculum activities such as outreach. It is a conference that is definitely worth considering if you have the opportunity.

When my supervisor asked me to attend EGU in his place, I was very apprehensive. No one in my department was going to attend the General Assembly as a participant and there was only one small session I was interested in. In the end, I do not regret going at all and I found myself most times as giddy as a child in a candy store as I ventured into all the different sessions. In all honestly, there is so much going on at the conference that it doesn't feel lonely at all (though having lunch by yourself can feel a little awkward, you can go check out some stalls, posters or even work to ease the feeling). I spent two full days at the General Assembly and I felt exhausted by the second day - if you're going for a full week, I recommend breaking up the time with a bit of sight seeing - after all, EGU General Assembly is held in a very beautiful city.

I'm not sure if I would attend EGU conference as a PhD student again but if anything, it has prepared me for future multidisciplinary conferences I may attend in the near future.

Road Trip Across Ladakh: When India met Eurasia

Formation of the Greater Ranges of Asia 

The Himalayas and Karakoram are two of the highest mountain ranges in the world. The Himalayas stretches across 2900 km, passing through six countries, and contains the highest mountain on Earth (Mt Everest if you're wondering) yet it is one of the youngest ranges. On the other hand, Karakoram is only 500 km across but it has the densest concentration of high peaks (over 8000 m) and it is one of the most glaciated parts outside of the polar regions. The Himalayan mountains continue to grow because the region is still very tectonically active, resulting in a high frequency of earthquakes. The formation of the mountains has caused global impact from changing oceanic circulation patterns to inducing the South Asian Monsoons, just in case the heights of the mountain ranges weren't impressive enough!

The two mountain ranges share the same drive of formation: the collision between India and Eurasia. If we wind back to the early Mesozoic, during the time of Pangaea, India was neighbouring Africa, Antarctica and Australia in the southern hemisphere while Eurasia was located in the north. The two landmasses were separated by the Tethys Ocean. This arrangement was disrupted approximately 175 Ma years ago when Pangaea started to break apart and the Indian plate began to move towards Eurasia. This plate movement was due to convergent plate boundaries. The key plate boundary was located along the southern margin of the continental Eurasia plate where the oceanic plate, which is denser than continental plate, was being subducted into the mantle. The subduction zones started to close the Tethys ocean and India moved at a rate of 10-20 mm per year until around 50 Ma, when the two continental plates collided.

The plates continued to converge but the rate India travelled northwards was reduced to 5 mm per year. As the Indian plate and Eurasian plate are both light density continental rocks, the continents began to uplift creating some of the world's greatest mountain ranges. The collision caused the rocks to buckle and fold over, creating the stunning geology. This process continues today as the crust of the Indian plate carries on thrusting under that of the Eurasian plate causing the crustal thickness of the region to be twice the average. Ladakh, located in the state of Kashmir and Jammu in India, is dominated by the geology that created the two mighty mountain ranges. The five main geotectonic units from south to north are: Tethys Himalaya, Indus-Tsangpo Suture Zone, Ladakh arc, Shyok Suture Zone and the Karakoram block. During our road trip from Manali to Leh and around, we were able to have a glimpse of the beautiful landscape the region had to offer.

Starting our journey in the Himalayas

Our road trip officially started in Manali. Technically we took an overnight coach leaving Delhi at 7 pm and arriving in the town of Manali at around 9 pm so you could say our road trip started further south but as I spent most of this journey either yearning for that Blue and Gold Sari I didn't have time to buy or trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in, the excitement did not start until the day after. By then I had already missed half of the Himalayan tectonic units: The clastic sediments (sourced from the Himalayas as they eroded) of the Sub-Himalayan unit and metamorphosed sedimentary rocks (sourced from the Indian platform) of the Lower Himalayas unit. Unfortunately the trip only improved a little as we had to pass the apparently majestic Rohtang Pass in complete cloud cover (damn that Monsoon season).

The start of the road trip took place within the High Himalayan Crystalline Sequence: The Climax of the Himalayan orogeny. The rocks here were originally Precambrian to Mesozoic sedimentary rocks that were metamorphosed into medium to high grade metamorphic rocks during the peak of the Himalayan formation in the mid-Tertiary (though the rocks have undergone many phases of deformation). Here, mica schists, quartzites and gneiss that represent up to amphibolite facies can be found. The HHCS was intruded by leucogranites in the Miocene which also formed migmatites in the process. In fact, Manali is located on one of these High Himalayan Leucogranites. Our four hour drive was spent completely in the HHCS as we spent the night in Keylong. The view of homes on mountain tops was one of the best views among the many others.

The sky cleared the next day just in time for us to enjoy the Tibetan Tethys Zone in its full glory. The TTZ is the most northerly zone of the Indian plate and the numerous formations within it show how much the environment has changed! This zone represents a sedimentary shelf facies that formed in the passive northern margin of the Indian plate, which has been divided in two by Carbiferous-Permian volcanic rocks. The earlier Precambrian to Carboniferous Lahoul Supergroup moves from shallow water sedimentary rocks to terrestrial formations (continental molasse, aeolian sandstones) back to marine formations (limestones, evaporites, deltatic clastics).  The Panjal Traps are the continental flood basalts from the Carboniferous to Permian period that occurred from the break up of Gondwana. Post volcanism, the Zanskar Supergroup represents a return to marine setting with carbonate platforms, carbonate sediments, shales, sandstones and limestones that eventually evolved into shallow water setting. The TTZ is largely unmetamorphosed and contains abundant fossils indicating the rich biodiversity that once existed in the Tethyan Sea.

Driving through the Indus Tsangpo Suture Zone

The Indus Tsangpo Suture Zone (ITSZ) separates the Indian plate from the Eurasian plate. The three units within the the ITSZ show a progression from a deep marine setting to shallow waters progressing into a delta and then finally a continental collision facies. The two earlier main units in the ITSZ are the Lamayuru Complex and the Nimdam-Dras Volcanic Group. The shales, sandstones and limestones of the Lamayuru, which were deposited during the Triassic to Jurassic period, represent the "deep water" marine setting. The Dras Volcanic group (of the Nimdam-Dras unit) comprises of basalt, andesites and dacites that show island arc tholeiitic and primitive calc alkaline geochemistry. The Nimdam group contains volcanoclastic materials, limestone blocks and volcanic blocks. The Dras Group represents an island arc while the Nimdam group suggests a forearc basin which received and deposited sediments from the island arc.

The most dominant and youngest group in the ITSZ are the Cenozoic Indus Basin sedimentary rocks, also known as the Indus Molasse. These rocks are carbonate or clastic sediments that originated from the Eurasian plate and were deposited south of the Kohistan-Ladakh Batholith. The earlier group of IBSR, the Tar group, shows an evolution into a shallow marine (shales, fine sandstones, limestones) and delta dominated with fluvial deposits (coarse sandstones, conglomerates). The later group, the Indus Group, shows a switch from a marine to a terrestrial setting. The arrival of Indian sediments into the sequence has been used to date the collision of the two continental masses. During the final leg of the Manali-Leh roadtrip, the highway curves through the vibrant maroon and green shales and sandstones and this was the highlight of the trip. It was the first time that I made my driver stop so I could run over to examine the outcrops while James awkwardly tried to explain that I am a geologist through the language barrier (it didn't work).

Settling in the Ladakh Batholith

Once we crossed the Indus River on the highway route, the sedimentary units stopped abruptly and we were greeted by valleys and mountains made of crystalline felsic igneous rocks. This is the Ladakh Batholith, part of the Trans-Himalayan batholith, which stretches 600 km between the Indus Suture Zone in the south and Shyok Suture Zone in the north. The batholith is mostly made of biotite and hornblende granodiorite and granite but there is presence of mafic components in the form of ol-norite and gabbro. Leh sits comfortably within one of these granitic valleys that was shaped by glaciers.

The Ladakh Batholith resulted from the Andean-type magmatism that occurred during the subduction of the Tethys Ocean under Eurasia. The label "Andean type" refers to a subduction of an oceanic plate under a continental plate. As the oceanic lithosphere subducts into the mantle, it partially melts and dehydrates allowing some of the volatiles, especially the water, to percolate to the mantle of the overlying plate. This lowers the melting temperature of the mantle wedge and can cause some melting leading to magmatism, which in this context manifested as mainly plutonism with some volcanism. The Ladakh Batholith is a result of multiple pulses of intrusion of calc-alkaline material that has been uplifted and eroded to its current form today.

The batholith has been dated several times as another way of understanding and timing the formation of the mountain ranges and the beautiful geology surrounding it. Weinberg and Dunlap (2000) used U-Pb and K-Ar dating techniques on zircons and samples of subvolcanic dike respectively. They found that magmatic activity occurred in Leh between 70-50 Ma and the last magmatic event occurred around 49.8 Ma, just around the time when the sedimentary rock suggests collision with India. This suggests that magmatism stopped soon after the collision due to the change in plate boundary (from oceanic-continental to continental-continental) "disrupting" the magmatic system.

Exploring the Nubra Valley in the Shyok Suture Zone

The zone between the Ladakh Batholith in the south and the Karakoram units (Eurasian plate) in the north is messy, less studied and not well understood compared to the other geological units. However, there's one thing for sure, it's another collision zone! James and I couldn't wait to drive off to another part of Ladakh and we chose to see the Nubra Valley before Pangong Tso (saving the sunshine for the best part of the trip). Our car drove over the Khardung-La pass and headed to the Nubra Valley within the Shyok suture zone in the northwest.

The Shyok Suture Zone represents the collision between the Ladakh-Kohistan Arc and the Karakoram Block. This second convergent boundary was located south of the Eurasian subduction zone as an intra-oceanic island arc. The geology of SSZ is composed of ophiolitic melanges (sections of the oceanic crust that have been obducted onto continental crust), metamorphosed volcanic rocks and sedimentary rocks. The Shyok Suture Zone represents a "complete section through an oceanic island arc". There is a disagreement between the direction of subduction, the features of an island arc the units represent and the timing of (the Shyok ocean) closure. Moreover, there is still an on going debate today whether the Ladakh-Kohistan island arc collided with the Asian or Indian plate first though it was generally understood that the Ladakh-Kohistan Island Arc collided the the Karakoram Block in the Cretaceous period before the Indian collided with Eurasia in the Tertiary period.

Rolland et al (2000) suggested that the SSZ in Ladakh shows signs of a NW-SE evolution from a back arc to arc formation i.e. the back arc basin was opening in the northwest of the Ladakh Arc and closing eastward. The suggestion comes from the presence of basaltic blocks and tuffs with a geochemistry between mid-ocean ridge basalts and island arc basalts in the northwest and arc setting volcanic rocks in the southwest. The sedimentary and volcanic rocks also suggest a change in the geodynamic setting from west to east: limestones with pillow basalts and lava flows found in the west suggest a effusive eruption in a marine setting while pelites, sandstones and conglomerates with ignimbrite layers suggest a continental setting with a "catastrophic" aerial eruption in the east.

Dipping into Pangong Tso & looking onto the Karakoram Block

The first time I wanted to visit Pangong Tso was, unsurprising to any desi readers out there, after I watched "3 Idiots". It wasn't the first time I've seen the beautiful lake in a bollywood movie (Dil Se and Jab Tak Hai Jaan were also shot there to name a few) but the scenery in "3 Idiots" was particularly stunning. My dad leaned over to me in the cinema and told me that the lake was in Ladakh and that he'll take us there one day. So I got a little impatient and went there before he had the chance (I hope I'll take them there one day).

Pangong Tso is located in the Karakoram Block, the final geotectonic unit of our Ladakh trip! The Karakoram terrane extends from Hindu Kush, Afghanistan in the west to Tibet in the east. The terrane can be divided into three major lithologies. The most northerly unit is the Karakoram Tethys Zone which is, as you can guess, a sedimentary sequence that records the travel of the Karakoram as it left Gondwana to make the Asian plate: from deep water sediments in the Carboniferous to shallow marine carbonates in the mid-Jurassic. The sedimentary sequence was then intruded by diorites from a pre-collision event. The south of the KTZ is the Karakoram Batholith and this comprises of granites that range from monzogranite to garnet-two mica-leucogranite composition formed by both pre and post collisional events. Karakoram Metamorphic complex lies between the Karakoram Batholith and SSZ. It's made of metasedimentary rocks, amphibolites and gneiss-migmatites which have have been intruded by granitic bodies too!

The Pangong Metamorphic Complex can be found south of the lake and we had a peek of it on our way back from Pangong Tso to Leh. This complex comprises of, as described by Rolland et al (2000, 2002 and 2009), "a granulite facies core and an amphibolitic cortex". The granulite core is mainly made of garnet-bearing gneiss, metabasite and limestone while the amphibolite facies contains metapelitic schists and gneiss along with the presence of metabasic rocks. This complex is bounded by the Karakoram fault and earlier papers suggest that this block has been exhumed from a 18 km depth and moved southwards. The garnets in garnet-kyanite-starulite gneiss show multiple stages of growth implying that the complex underwent many stages of deformation. Thanh (2001) suggested that the garnet cores formed during the subduction setting induced prograde metamorphism, which were then "abruptly" uplifted during the Karakoram-Ladakh Arc collision, and the overgrowth were formed during the continental collision between India and Eurasia.

Looking Back

I had a wonderful time in Ladakh. Before I jumped on a coach to Manali, I knew that Ladakh would be a geologist's paradise. It wasn't until we were in the Himachal Pradesh - Jammu and Kashmir border (when the clouds and mist shifted a little and the temperatures became a little warmer) that I fell in love with my subject again. This was the first time I tried to explore the geology and apply my course to the real world on my own. I gained a new found love for geological field work. I found myself naturally pouring into the literature to put together the pieces I saw. I understood more about the Himalayas now then during my second year course! My only regret is not reading the papers before I left, it would have been great to drive over to the ophiolites or having a closer inspection of the Pangong Metamorphic Complex. Alas, maybe next time!

References

1. Searle, Mike P. Geology and tectonics of the Karakoram Mountains. John Wiley & Sons Inc, 1991.
2. Garzanti, Eduardo, Aymon Baud, and Georges Mascle. "Sedimentary record of the northward flight of India and its collision with Eurasia (Ladakh Himalaya, India)." Geodinamica Acta 1.4-5 (1987): 297-312.
3. Henderson, Alexandra L., et al. "Geology of the Cenozoic Indus Basin sedimentary rocks: Paleoenvironmental interpretation of sedimentation from the western Himalaya during the early phases of India‐Eurasia collision."Tectonics 29.6 (2010).
4. Henderson, Alexandra L., et al. "Constraints to the timing of India–Eurasia collision; a re-evaluation of evidence from the Indus Basin sedimentary rocks of the Indus–Tsangpo Suture Zone, Ladakh, India." Earth-Science Reviews 106.3 (2011): 265-292.
5. Phillips, Richard J., Randall R. Parrish, and Michael P. Searle. "Age constraints on ductile deformation and long-term slip rates along the Karakoram fault zone, Ladakh." Earth and Planetary Science Letters 226.3 (2004): 305-319.
6. Phillips, Richard J. "Geological map of the Karakoram fault zone, eastern Karakoram, Ladakh, NW Himalaya." Journal of Maps 4.1 (2008): 21-37.
7. Rolland, Y., A. Pecher, and C. Picard. "Middle Cretaceous back-arc formation and arc evolution along the Asian margin: the Shyok Suture Zone in northern Ladakh (NW Himalaya)." Tectonophysics 325.1 (2000): 145-173.
8. Rolland, Yan, et al. "Syn-kinematic emplacement of the Pangong metamorphic and magmatic complex along the Karakorum Fault (N Ladakh)."Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 34.1 (2009): 10-25.
9. Schärer, Urs, Copeland Peter, Harrison T. Mark, and Searle Mike P. "Age, Cooling History, and Origin of Post-Collisional Leucogranites in the Karakoram Batholith; A Multi-System Isotope Study." The Journal of Geology 98.2 (1990): 233-51. Web.
10. Searle, M. P. "Structural evolution and sequence of thrusting in the High Himalayan, Tibetan—Tethys and Indus suture zones of Zanskar and Ladakh, Western Himalaya." Journal of Structural Geology 8.8 (1986): 923-936.Sinha, Anshu K., et al. "Contribution to the geology of the eastern Karakoram, India." SPECIAL PAPERS-GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA (1999): 33-46.
11. Streule, M. J., et al. "Evolution and chronology of the Pangong Metamorphic Complex adjacent to the Karakoram Fault, Ladakh: constraints from thermobarometry, metamorphic modelling and U–Pb geochronology." Journal of the Geological Society 166.5 (2009): 919-932.
12. Thanh, N. X., et al. "Multiple garnet growth in garnet–kyanite–staurolite gneiss, Pangong metamorphic complex, Ladakh Himalaya: new constraints on tectonic setting." Lithos 127.3 (2011): 552-563.
13. Thanh, Ngo Xuan, et al. "A Cretaceous forearc ophiolite in the Shyok suture zone, Ladakh, NW India: Implications for the tectonic evolution of the Northwest Himalaya." Lithos 155 (2012): 81-93.
14. Weinberg, R. F., and M. P. Searle. "The Pangong Injection Complex, Indian Karakoram: a case of pervasive granite flowthrough hot viscous crust."Journal of the Geological Society 155.5 (1998): 883-891.Weinberg, Roberto F., and William James Dunlap. "Growth and deformation of the Ladakh Batholith, northwest Himalayas: implications for timing of continental collision and origin of calc‐alkaline batholiths." The Journal of Geology 108.3 (2000): 303-320.

Photoessay: Flying to Volcán de Colima

Flying to a volcano, flying around one of Mexico's most active volcano,  has been the highlight of my time in Colima. I know I haven't finished my volunteering trip but this combines my childhood love of flying with my obsession with volcanoes. I've been looking forward to this opportunity the minute I was told about it (and I had to postpone twice because of other visitors) but it was worth every single penny and seconds I had to wait. Volcán de Colima is absolutely beautiful, from the ground to the sky. 

Getting ready for LIFT OFF

Nick arranges these flights to happen once a month as a way of monitoring the volcano. He needs two volunteers: one to handle the thermal camera and another to take digital photographs. Other volunteers can go on the flight as "tourists" if they are lucky and enjoy the whole ride while the main two have to panic about making sure the equipment doesn't start misbehaving and taking the images of anything that is relevant. 

We waited eagerly for an email from Nick at 7 AM to check if the flight was happening. If there is a single low cloud, the flight is called off. You need the perfect weather conditions. Around 7:05 AM we got an email simply stating "Great conditions! See you at 7:30" and the rest of the day literally flew by.  

The truck was being repaired at the mechanics (again) so we had to take a taxi to the airport.

Check out our six-seater sweet ride. Possibly the smallest plane I've been on. 

The best part of being in charge of the thermal images is that you get to seat on the co-pilot seat!

All the passengers before lift off!

Coming face to face with the volcano

The whole flight is about an hour but the actual flight around the volcano is about fifteen minutes. You can't help but stare out the window for the whole trip, the landscape around the volcano is beautiful too. The land is so green, splattered with a few small towns and farms, and the sky was blue... it was the most scenic combination. I had a permanent grin on face the whole ride through.

An unknown little town as we were approaching the Colima Complex.

This is one of my favourite photos from the whole trip

An attempt to be artistic - the Comlima Complex with a view of the airplane's nose.  You can see the faint outline of the propeller.

My second favourite photo of the trip - where lush forest meets the hostile land. 

Cutting across the plume

Getting close to the summit. You can see the parasitic volcano twin, Volcancito, on the bottom left corner and the northern lava flow. 

The view of the whole Colima Complex from my window...

... And now the pilot's view 

Nevado de Colima and Volcaán de Colima side by side. Does it remind anyone of an old couple?

Although Volcaán de Colima looks taller in the photos, Nevado de Colima has a higher elevation of 4271 m compared to VdC's height of 3839 m. However, VdC is still active and growing, while NdC is being eroded away, so VdC may reign over the whole complex one day. The current activity of the volcano includes vulcanian eruptions and the growth of a lava dome (which began in 2007, I believe) that overspills to form the active lava flows around the volcano and rockfalls (which are beautifully incandescent!).

 Descending - Heading back home

Of course I was dreading the fly back home... "Couldn't we fly around the volcano for five more minutes" was what I really wanted to ask the pilot. A part of me wished I went on the plane as a "tourist" but I was pretty happy to sacrifice the time to take good digital photos just to sit at the front (I'm obsessed with taking photos of the volcano, I know). Despite me thinking the flight went smoothly, I accidentally left the GPS equipment on the plane (you can see where I left it on one of the photos) and the pilot didn't let us take the photos for Nick early enough, d'oh. I kept thinking on the way home that I would love to go for another flight, maybe I should go for it again. A month later, I think once was enough, I don't want to make the experience less special by going on it again (I think you'll only get the awe you feel for the first time once). Saying that... I can't help but glance back on the photos, it was an amazing trip.  

Aviation sunglasses, check. Gelled back hair, check. Collared shirt, check. I do believe we have a pilot here.

More evidence that I was in the co-pilot seat!

Approaching Colima airport

Couldn't help myself :')

Trapped

N.B. The story could be a little inaccurate because of the lack of communication between us and those with authority. A group of volunteers trapped in a Mexican volcano observatory with little and no spanish is a situation that was never to go smoothly. I apologise if I make the bomberos sound hostile, its just what I felt at the situation. The three bomberos on our first day and the one who offered us a lift were, on the other hand, very lovely!

Before I even stepped on Colima's grounds, I was asked if I wanted to join a field trip the day after I arrived. I had no expectations what this field trip was going to be like, I never did any volcanology field work on an active volcano before, so I waved it off thinking it was going to be a day trip... That was until I found out a sleeping bag was going to be involved (and possibly every piece of clothing I brought over). The other volunteers soon confirmed that the trip they planned was a big one. A night in El Playon (about 2-3 km from the lava dome) followed by another night near the summit of Nevado de Colima (the extinct volcano north of Volcan de Colima). This is probably the most dangerous and highest point I would ever walk.

Dat sharp peak (Nevado de Colima)

Ignoring the signs

We should have seen the signs that we were not meant to be on this trip. Moments after seeing the peak of Nevado for the first time (that peak!) we came across the remnants of a recent landslide. They've come across landslides before which haven't stopped them but this was too big to drive over or dig through. We quickly changed our plans to going straight to Nevado because we didn't have much time til sunset.

Sara, in the pink jacket, for scale.

The second omen was that we weren't initially allowed to stay in Nevado. Nick needed to call the next day so we could have permission but he was in another state for a conference so he didn't know our abrupt change of plans. The sun was setting and it was getting late and really cold (we were 4000 m high up man) so the first group of firemen were kind enough to let us stay the night. They set up the fireplace, which we took full advantage to make smores, and they had a playful big kitten that just didn't seem to like me on the first night.

We named him Alfredo.

The team got straight to work when the firemen gave the thumbs up to stay. The infrared camera and digital SLR was set up to take overnight data. The former used to take thermal data while the SLR was used to record any visible activities like rockfalls. The day after we tried to set up the FLYSPEC, which collects SO2 data, but we didn’t seem to have any luck. That was a real pity because it was the first thing they were trying to teach me how to use. Turns out it really was unfortunate about the flyspec not working for reasons mentioned later. 

SLR, Thermal camera on the wooden board and Toughbook, FlySpec on the ground.

Disaster strikes

We waved the three bomberos adios (they have a changeover around 10 am) and told them we’ll be hella out of there by 1-2pm. You should have seen the happiness in our face as we packed up the truck again, ready to be back in civilisation (I was looking forward to be in the warmth again)… and then it happened. The truck refused to start. I can’t remember how exactly the events unfolded, the horror that we’ll have to stay there another night was so great that my mind still remains clouded. We tried to bump start the car, we tried to push it but our effort remained fruitless. The new set of bomberos tried to help but if I’m being honest, they just made the truck a little bit worse because now it sounded like a old man who was wheezing in his deathbed.

Tom pushing the truck while I was too busy taking photos (sorry!)

Stuck between a feud

And this is when we saw the ugly face of bureaucracy. At first I thought we couldn’t have had this failure in a better place, we were staying with civil protection, surely they’ll help us! They’ll know what to do! Sadly I was just being optimistic at that point. They told us it was Nick’s responsibility to help us, Nick our supervisor who was in a different state for a conference. Nick who we couldn’t call because neither us or they had a phone to call him. Nick who probably didn’t have a clue how bad the situation was. 

The only advantage of being trapped at 4000 m altitude was witnessing this beautiful sunset.

The Struggle

Being stuck at 4000 m altitude with very little to do is not fun. I made the mistake of not sleeping in my sleeping bag on the first night which meant I couldn’t sleep at all because I was shivering so badly. Each day we woke up with a headache (except for Sara who luckily had come prepared with altitude sickness pills) and we became exhausted just by walking to and from the truck. Sure we could collect more data but it was hard for us to pass the day. Thank god the observatory had wifi. 

However, passing the time was the least of our worries. We only packed food for two nights. We were only left with snacks and bread (which were all turning pretty hard). I was surviving on almonds and donuts for the last two days. We weren’t getting hungry because the altitude seemed to have suppressed our appetite but we knew we couldn’t stay a day longer (was it ironic that we watched the hunger games on Wednesday evening?). To make it worse, the bomberos were cooking up omelettes and other cooked food that just felt like they were taunting us. 

Living above the clouds

FREEDOM

There was hope when the firemen told us that they could get a mechanic up and he would arrive by the afternoon. We held on to that hope even though it was getting around four but we were crushed when they broke the news he won’t be coming and that he’ll try again tomorrow. To be honest, at that point we felt like we couldn’t trust them. The only time they showed concern for the truck was when they needed to move it out of the way for their car. One of the bomberos invited two of us (Sara and me) to go down with them on the Wednesday swap over but it seemed like a bad idea to split the four of us, so we stayed together (good idea in retrospect which I could explain if someone asks). 

Nick finally came through when he contacted the National Park authority who contacted a tow truck and a mechanic. The only problem was that we needed to escort the tow truck to our truck at the top of Nevado. Now how do we get down?! We could have hiked down but that takes 6 hours, mechanics would refuse to work that late. We asked the bomberos to drive us down so we could bring the tow truck. They said they would double check with their boss but it should be okay (or so we thought he said).  The next day we waited eagerly for the truck to arrive. It was running late, but that didn't worry us because we finally had a solution, we were finally going to go home! Their truck finally came and we ran up to the bomberos asking to hop on.

No. 

They bomberos were breaking one bad news after another. They told us they didn't have the authority to give us a lift down. I thought they were the civil protection, that they were there to help us but it seemed like they were doing anything but that. Sara was suppose to leave Colima on Saturday, we didn't have anything more to eat, we couldn't cope with the altitude, we wanted to go home! We became desperate... there was crying and a teensy bit of begging involved, couldn't they let atleast one of us down? 

Lesson learnt: being hysterical can sometimes be the key. Turns out that the bomberos do not know how to handle a crying girl and maybe it's okay to ignore authority sometimes (for some reason the words like permission and Alfredo wasn't being thrown around anymore). They decided to take their big truck down during the swap over and let us jump on the back of their truck so we could hitch a ride with the bomberos down to Guzman. We were finally free. 

The girls were obviously more excited about finally coming home

... But it wasn't over

Nick wasn't impressed that we deserted the truck. We tried to find the mechanic the Park authority contacted as soon as we got down but we were too quick to get back home (after having some trashy chinese food at a supermarket) when our first taxi failed to find it. Tom and I returned to Guzman the next day to find the said mechanic (and we did). Never did I expect to be on a tow truck driving up to a mountain summit in Mexico, but hey I come back with a story to tell. Everything went smoother than expected, I think even the driver was surprised, and we brought the truck back to Colima. 

The rescue mission wasn't without a cost though. While we were busy trying to decipher what the tow truck company was explaining to us in Spanish, we missed an explosion! Volcan de Colima produced a 5km high ash cloud and pyroclastic flows can be seen in the photos. You won't believe how incredibly upset I was to miss such a sight and how guilty the team felt for not being able to collect SO2 data. However, from a volcanologist's point of view, this is an exciting time for field work! We'll be back to investigate the site of damage including from El Playon and...

Nevado. 

Volcan de Colima the day before the explosion