The Trail By Fire crew is at it again!
TBF-1.0 to Chile and Southern Peru was a resounding success, but has only stoked “The Fire”. The Nazca Subduction Zone does not end in Peru, and neither does the TRAIL BY FIRE!
The team couldn’t sit idle, knowing that volatile emissions from Ecuador’s spectacular and highly active volcanoes were going unmeasured. So, haven taken what we learned from our first expedition, and having spent 10 months refining techniques on our local volcanoes, the team is heading back to South America to continue our momentous quest! This time, on Tungurahua, Cotopaxi, Reventador, and Guagua Pichincha, the team will face new challenges in the jungle of the equatorial Andes!
Most of the original team is together again – whether in person or in spirit. Nial and Aaron have sadly been lured by the siren songs of Antarctica and Europa; but Yves, Philipson and Ian will be boots-on-the-ground, with Talfan keeping his watch from above, and new member João representing the Sicilian contingent! The fabled 7th member of our team – Sally the Land Rover – has also moved on to greener paddocks; but with generous support from the Instituto Geofísico de la Escuela Politécnica Nacional (IGEPN) and the Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD), we will be mobile once again!
All our bags are packed (one of a volcanologist's greatest challenges is fitting the entire chaotic contents of an office into a single piece of checked baggage!) and we’re ready to go. We are equipped once again with DOAS, MultiGAS, UV Cameras, direct sampling tools, and an updated fleet of quadcopters - and we're geared up with kit and clothes from Ocean Optics, Crowcon, and Cactus!
Check in regularly for the all chills, thrills, sulphur burns, and U-turns on the TRAIL BY FIRE!