Stuart Monro, OBE, FRSGS, FRSE is a Scottish geologist and science communicator

The Club welcomed Stuart Monro, a well-known Scottish geologist and science communicator to present a talk via Zoom to its members.

He reminded us that Edinburgh, with its volcanic history would have looked quite different just a million years ago and was going introduce us to some volcanic landscapes, a bit more dramatic than the quiet and pleasant landscapes of Edinburgh.

He started by mentioning Krakatoa, who’s volcanic explosion was the biggest in recorded history and was going to base his talk on how such events come about.

What followed was an interesting and educational talk on how plate tectonics contributed to this with a particular emphasis on the interaction between magma lava and water.

After discussing the mid ocean trench which contributes to the volcanic activity in Iceland, Stuart moved onto New Zealand where we have the Pacific Plate moving northwest , underneath the Australian Plate and the Alpine fault that produced the earthquakes in Christchurch. Stuart showed a number of photographs and videos from the time that he was on holiday there with his daughter. This included the fateful volcano on White Island, in the Bay of Plenty region.

We moved onto Hawaii where we saw some dramatic footage of a fissure which had magma flowing slowly but surely towards the sea where the 1000°C  magma creates superheated steam as it hits the ocean. Miraculously, a number of farms and houses survived the magma flow as it seemed to flow around them.

Stuart finished his talk by taking questions from the members and pointing out that Yellowstone is a super volcano and that if it goes, in the words of Private Fraser from Dad’s Army, then we all doomed, doomed! However, the good news is that we are slowly but surely moving further way from Trump due to the movement of the plate tectonics!

Finally, Daniel Cristea thanked Stuart for an excellent and interesting presentation which provided a really fascinating and educational talk on plate tectonics and volcanoes.