3rd NEMOH School in Dublin
by Johannes Thun and Karen Strehlow
Directly after the field school in Iceland, 16 exhausted yet happy NEMOHs fellows moved on to Ireland, where the next school was held from 1-5 September 2014 at University College Dublin (UCD). Due to the on-going eruption on Holuhraun/ Bárðarbunga, Hannah and Werner were left behind to deal with the situation.
Together with a few more affiliates from various institutions, the rest of us were introduced into inverse methods in geophysics and volcanology.
The lectures and exercises on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday were given by researchers with different backgrounds from mathematics and (geo)physics to geology. After getting a general idea of inversion problems (Ivan Lokmer, UCD and Antonio Emolo, University of Naples), the lectures by Louis de Barros (University of Nice) and Michele Barsanti (INGV Pisa) set the mathematical basis for solving inverse problems. Antonio Emolo and Gilberto Saccorotti (INGV Pisa) showed us different approaches on how linear and non-linear inversions are carried out, what problems they bring along and how results and uncertainties can be interpreted.
Wednesday was the day to be socially proactive and started with the Marie Curie Open Day in Dún Laoghaire, which was dedicated to school kids of ages 8-11. Using the experience from our previous Open Days, we presented some of our well-proven experiments as well as new ones and showed the children how volcanoes work and how we can investigate them. The feedback we got was great and this was probably our best outreach day so far. In the afternoon we set sail in Dún Laoghaire harbour and lecturers and students got to know each other better during a sunny sailing lesson on the Irish Sea, followed by a well-deserved dinner at a local yacht club. Ahoy!
On the final lecture day, Louis de Barros and Elías Rafn Heimisson (University of Iceland, thanks for spontaneously substituting Freysteinn!) talked about inverse problems in volcanology. In the afternoon, Costanza Bonadonna (University of Geneva) and Laura and Chuck Connor (University of South Florida) lectured on simulations and inversions of tephra fallout and gave us a corresponding computer exercise using the Tephra2 code.
On Friday all present NEMOH ESRs were to give an exercise talk to a lay audience, which was evaluated and judged by communication expert Patrick Sutton, director of The Gaiety School of Acting and Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin, assisted by Kathy Cashman and Costanza Bonadonna. We also got valuable feedback on our performances. Congratulations to our winners Alex, Julie and Damien!
