Professor Richard Walker and Dr Neill Marshall discuss their work on past earthquakes to better understand the current seismic hazard risk in Central Asia in this short documentary.

“This is a topic that is of continued importance and urgency due to the fast pace of urban growth and infrastructure development across the region: the more we can identify now will help us build a more resilient future.” Professor Richard Walker

Thanks go to Oxford Earth Sciences, Reuben College, University of Oxford The Leverhulme Trust, UK Centre for Observation and Modelling of Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Tectonics, and all of those who have supported this work, including Dr Charlotte Bird and the Oxford Sparks team.

We are delighted to celebrate COMET Scientists Professor Marie Edmonds (University of Cambridge) and Professor David Pyle (University of Oxford), who are amongst the outstanding and distinguished group of scientists elected Fellows of the Royal Society this year. This prestigious title is awarded to scientists who have made exceptional contributions to science, and the ground-breaking work that both professors have undertaken throughout their careers is certainly deserving of this honour.

Professor Marie Edmonds FRS – University of Cambridge

Professor Marie Edmonds is an Earth Scientist whose interdisciplinary research spans volcanology, igneous petrology, tectonics, atmospheric science and economic geology. Her work focuses on understanding how certain elements move through the Earth system – elements that are essential for creating a habitable planet, powering volcanic eruptions, and concentrating valuable metals in the Earth’s crust.

Professor Edmonds has significantly advanced our understanding of how volcanoes work and their broader impacts on our planet. She has developed new ways to monitor volcanoes by studying the gases they release, helping scientists better predict when eruptions might occur and assess the risks they pose to nearby communities. Her research has also revealed how carbon moves through the Earth over millions of years, providing vital insights into long-term climate change. She has shown how hot, mineral-rich fluids from deep within the Earth create the metal deposits we rely on for modern technology, and has reconstructed huge ancient eruptions to understand how they altered Earth’s climate and environment in the past.

As Professor of Volcanology and Petrology and Head of the Earth Sciences department at the University of Cambridge, Professor Edmonds also serves as the Ron Oxburgh Fellow and Vice President of Queens’ College, Cambridge. Her excellence has also been recognised through membership of the Academia Europaea and the American Geophysical Union College of Fellows.

Professor David Pyle FRS – University of Oxford

Professor David Pyle’s fascination with volcanoes began early; he saw his first volcano at age seven in Chile, sparking a lifelong interest that would shape his distinguished career. After studying geological sciences at the University of Cambridge and completing his PhD on the volcanic histories of Santorini, Greece, and Oldoinyo Lengai, Tanzania, he has dedicated his research to quantifying the scale of volcanic eruptions and understanding their processes and impacts.

As Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford, Professor Pyle’s research combines geological fieldwork with archival records to build comprehensive pictures of volcanic activity. His work includes creating detailed eruptive histories of individual volcanoes to global-scale analyses, encompassing young and active volcanoes on Earth as well as investigations relevant to the early Earth and other planetary bodies. This broad perspective has contributed significantly to our understanding of volcanism across space and time.

Beyond his research excellence, Professor Pyle has demonstrated exceptional commitment to outreach and public engagement with science. He curated the ‘Volcanoes’ exhibition at the Bodleian Library, Oxford in 2017, authored two books, and helped lead two Royal Society Summer Science exhibits: ‘Fast and Furious’ in 2010 and ‘Sensing Volcanoes’ in 2023. His contributions to the field were recognised with the prestigious Murchison Medal of the Geological Society of London in 2024.

A Celebration of Earth Sciences Excellence

The election of both Professor Edmonds and Professor Pyle as Fellows of the Royal Society represents a tremendous achievement for Earth sciences, highlighting the vital importance of understanding our planet’s dynamic processes. Their complementary expertise demonstrates the breadth and depth of excellence in volcanic research.

We extend our warmest congratulations to Professor Marie Edmonds FRS and Professor David Pyle FRS on this prestigious honour!

On 28^th March 2025, a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck Myanmar, affecting large areas of the country and causing widespread destruction. A powerful 6.4-magnitude aftershock followed 12 minutes later, approximately 31 kilometres south of the initial shaking. The country, and surrounding areas, were also subjected to hundreds of smaller aftershocks for weeks after the initial event. Myanmar’s military government have estimated that the death toll has surpassed 3,000 people and an additional 4,500 have suffered injuries. The shallow depth of the earthquake (~10km) caused violent ground shaking and extensive damage to local buildings and infrastructure.

Data from ESA’s Sentinel-1 satellite first captured on 29^th March clearly show the physical effects of the earthquake on the region. The earthquake ruptured a remarkably long and simple fault, around 500 km in total length, with a relative motion across the fault of up to around 6 m (west side to the north, east side to the south). Although most of the motion is horizontal, there is also a vertical offset of around 1 m across the fault (east side down).

One of Myanmar’s largest cities, Mandalay, sits close to this extensive ground movement (at around 22°N), explaining the significant human and structural impact of the event.

By combining Sentinel-1 imagery from before and after the earthquake, COMET scientists have been able to measure surface deformation that is clearly visible in the data sets shown below:

Figure 1: Data from four Sentinel-1 tracks (2 ascending and 2 descending), each consisting of three standard LiCSAR frames (~13 bursts per subswath), were used to cover the deformation zone. Azimuth offsets (top panels) capture along-track (north–south) deformation. Range offsets (bottom panels) represent Line-of-Sight (LoS) deformation. Burst Overlap Interferometry (right) provide high-resolution along-track deformation. Red indicates southward, and blue indicates northward motion.

Figure 2: 3D co-seismic displacement fields and associated uncertainties were estimated using a Weighted Least Squares approach applied to the offset tracking datasets. Red colors represent east, north, and up directions, respectively. Only pixels with sufficient multi-geometry observations were used

The processing outputs from Sentinel-1 data are available for download at our LiCSAR system event page.

All related datasets and figures can be accessed here.

The images above contain modified Copernicus Sentinel-1 data analysed by the UK Centre for the Observation and Modelling of Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Tectonics (COMET). Data processing uses JASMIN, the UK’s collaborative data analysis environment (http://jasmin.ac.uk).

For more information on why and how COMET responds to earthquake events read this article by COMET Co-Director, Professor Tim Wright.

Analysis and figures produced by COMET Postdoc Dr Milan Lazecky and PhD student Muhammet Nergizci.

COMET – 17^th April 2025

Professor Tamsin Mather, COMET Scientist and Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford, is amongst the distinguished group of scientists who have been elected Fellows of the Royal Society this year. This highly prestigious title is awarded to scientists who have made an exceptional and important contribution to science.

Professor Mather’s work is certainly deserving of this honour, as she has produced significant advances in the understanding of volcanoes and volcanic behaviour. Working across different areas of expertise, her research includes the study of atmospheric chemistry of volcanic plumes, magma movement and the flow of fluids under and through volcanic areas, volcanic deformation, and past eruptive behaviour. The drive behind these varied investigations is to understand volcanoes as a natural hazard, but also as key resources (e.g., geothermal power) and as an important planetary process that contributes to maintaining the environment and driving change. Professor Mather’s contributions to the field include the discovery that volcanic vents perform nitrogen fixation, which may have been crucial during the early evolution of life on Earth, and the potential of the element mercury as a tracer for past large-scale volcanism, with widespread environmental impacts.

The many honours bestowed on Professor Mather for her important contributions to the field include the Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award (2018) and Geochemistry Fellowship of the Geochemical Society and the European Association of Geochemistry (2022), which is bestowed upon outstanding scientists who have made a major, long-term contribution to the field of geochemistry. She is also a Fellow of The Alan Turing Institute for Data Science and AI (2021) and was elected to Academia Europaea in 2021.

Professor Mather’s contributions to science extend beyond her research, including science communication, advocacy, and working to increase diversity and inclusion in the sciences. If you want to hear or read more about her work and experiences, her book, Adventures in Volcanoland, was published in April 2024 and combines exciting scientific discoveries with personal stories, or you could listen to ‘Supervolcanoes’ on the BBC’s Infinite Monkey Cage podcast.

Sir Adrian Smith, President of the Royal Society, commented on the list of awards this year:

“I am pleased to welcome such an outstanding group into the Fellowship of the Royal Society. This new cohort have already made significant contributions to our understanding of the world around us and continue to push the boundaries of possibility in academic research and industry. From visualising the sharp rise in global temperatures since the industrial revolution to leading the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, their diverse range of expertise is furthering human understanding and helping to address some of our greatest challenges. It is an honour to have them join the Fellowship.”

COMET would like to offer warm congratulations to Professor Mather on receiving her Fellowship of the Royal Society!

Monday 15th April, 2024

Tuesday 16th April, 2024

Wednesday 17th April, 2024

Thursday 18th April, 2024

Friday 19th April, 2024

Today we celebrate all our amazing women at COMET and introduce you to some members of the COMET Directorate.

Meet COMET’s Co-Director Professor Juliet Biggs (Bristol), expert in using satellite techniques to study earthquakes and volcanoes.

Meet COMET’s Centre Manager, Charlie Royle (Leeds), expert in complex, cross-institutional programme delivery and strategic-planning.

Meet COMET’s Research and Events Officer Lucy Sharpson (Leeds), expert in the complexities of supporting multi-institute Centres and event planning.

COMET Scientist Professor David Pyle (University of Oxford) is the recipient of the 2024 Murchison Medal, awarded by the Geological Society of London for his considerable contributions to the field of volcanology.

The Murchison Medal is awarded to geologists who have contributed significantly to ‘hard’ rock studies.  David is an internationally recognised volcanologist who has made outstanding contributions to understanding volcanic deposits and processes, using pioneering methods to characterise and classify tephra fall deposits and infer erupted volumes.

The Geological Society will host a formal awards ceremony on 12 June with more details of the day to be shared via its magazine Geoscientist, website and social media channels.

Congratulations David from all of your colleagues at COMET!

In November 2023, a state of emergency was suddenly declared in a fishing town in Iceland, Grindavík, and all residents were rapidly evacuated. In the space of around 6 hours, escalating seismic activity was felt: large cracks and fault movements occurred at the earth’s surface, and homes, businesses and infrastructure were destroyed.

This devastation was caused by huge amounts of magma moving at an unprecedented speed below the surface, which rushed into a crack that opened up below the town. The intrusion that formed was approximately 15-kilometres-long and extended around 1-5 km deep, with widening of up to 8 meters.

The processes and timescales behind the formation of major cracks, or “dikes”, aren’t currently fully understood but the international team of researchers behind a paper published in Science today have revealed new findings that shed some light on how these hazardous events occur.

Using detailed satellite observations alongside seismic measurements and physical modelling, the team of investigators led by University of Iceland and the Icelandic Meteorological Office, found that the magma flow rate under the surface of the earth reached an ultra-rapid and previously unrecorded speed of 7400 cubic meters per second. The study also shows that huge amounts of magma can be forced into cracks due to fracturing in the earth and tectonic stress, without much pressure coming from underlying magma source that feeds it. These findings demonstrate a significant hazard potential for this volcanic system and others with similar features, which can result in large-volume magmatic eruptions on the surface.

COMET Scientist, Professor Andy Hooper, was a key member of the team of investigators:

“Nothing like these rates of magma flow have ever been measured before. Luckily, the magma did not make it to the surface at that time, but this helps us understand how magma-filled cracks that are tens of kilometres long may have formed in the past.”

The events in November were the beginning of the activity in the affected area around Grindavík. Smaller magma intrusions occurred in December 2023 and January 2024, which unfortunately culminated in large eruptions and further devastation in the town, and a new, ongoing eruption started this morning (February 8th 2024).

Publication available here (open access for all for two weeks): https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adn2838

VMSG has recently announced its 2024 award winners and we are delighted to announce that COMET staff researcher Edna Dualeh has been named as the recipient of the 2024 Willy Aspinall Prize for an outstanding paper on applied volcanology.

Edna’s work on St. Vincent was part of her PhD with COMET Scientist Susanna Ebmeier and COMET Director, Tim Wright both based at the University of Leeds.

You can read Edna’s winning paper here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2022.117980

Huge congratulations to Edna from all your colleagues at COMET!

A group from the University of Bristol’s volcanology group represented COMET at the recent Girls into Geoscience careers day at the University of Plymouth. The group, consisting of MSc Volcanology students Alex Daniels, Anne-Marie Molina, Hannah Ellis, and PhD Student Ben Ireland, delivered a workshop showcasing a range of volcanological phenomena.

Anne-Marie and Alex had the following to say about the experience:

“We were at Plymouth University representing COMET for an event called “Girls into Geoscience”, where we talked about the different areas of volcanology to try and encourage these girls to pursue a career in geoscience! We wanted to pique their interest by showcasing volcanic rocks, drone imagery, and had a simulation of a volcanic eruption with a Coke and Mentos experiment. 

 We loved seeing the girls get involved with the interactive activities which they may not have access to in a classroom and loved their questions for us. It was really rewarding to see the girls understand volcanic processes through our experiment and get a sense of the intricacies which take place prior to a volcanic eruption in different settings around the world. This was an amazing opportunity to speak to so many girls with different backgrounds that came together with an interest in geoscience. It felt great to be able to inspire some of them with our own stories and hopefully they’ll pursue a career in geoscience!

 We hope to be back representing COMET at this great event next year!”