VDAP Training

2010 Workshop on Volcano Seismology and Eruption Forecasting, CVGHM, Bandung

In March 2010, VDAP taught a five-day workshop on Volcano Seismology and the use of seismic patterns in eruption forecasting to CVGHM personnel in Bandung, Java. The workshop was modelled after the previously held LAVAS workshops, and incorporated Indonesian examples into the Latin American Volcano Association of Seismologists (LAVAS) curriculum. Participants included junior and senior staff whose work ranges from hazard assessment, to the interpretation volcano seismicity, to conducting field work at volcanoes (including geologic mapping and installation of seismic stations), and to interfacing with the local observers.

Volcano Remote Sensing and GIS Hazard Modeling, March 3-10, 2010, Singapore

A remote sensing and GIS Hazard Modeling workshop was held at the Earth Observatory of Singapore (EOS), a new hazards center within the Nanyang Technological University of Singapore (NTU). The workshop brought together significant numbers of technical staff from the volcano observatories of the three most hazardous nations of the southwestern Pacific region for the first time to share data and discuss common problems and solutions. Considerable progress was made at the workshop in increasing access to remote sensing data, in teaching remote sensing and modeling methods to detect, track and forecast volcanic events and hazards.

CSAV International Training Course, Ongoing in the Summer

The Center for the Study of Active Volcanoes (CSAV) at the University of Hawaii in Hilo runs a six-week summer International Training Course in Volcano Hazards Monitoring. Because Hawaiian volcanoes can be approached and studied without significant risk, the big island of Hawaii provides and ideal environment for learning about and using volcano monitoring techniques. The International Training course is open to scientists and technicians from developing countries with active volcanoes. Since 1989 over 130 geologists and civil workers from 25 countries have received training in volcano monitoring methods through CSAV. VDAP has a long-term partnership with CSAV, providing instructors and co-sponsoring participants from developing countries.

LAVAS Quito, Ecaudor and Popayan, Colombia

In 2006, VDAP taught a six-day Workshop on Volcano Seismology for Latin-American Observatories that was attended by 22 students, with at least one student from each of the 14 observatories from Mexico to Peru. The course was taught in Spanish and designed for senior, experienced seismologists from each Latin American volcano observatory, with the purpose of improving volcano monitoring and eruption forecasting. The initial workshop increased understanding of volcano seismicity and led to sharing of volcanic experiences among the seismologists.

Due to the success of the first workshop, a second workshop was scheduled for 2009. VDAP held the ten-day workshop in Colombia on seismic data acquisition systems and in the recognition of patterns of seismicity that precede eruptions. 53 participants from 12 countries representing 19 organizations, observatories, and universities in North, Central and South America attended LAVAS II in 2009. Each participant is the primary or secondary person responsible for volcano monitoring in each country. In addition to advancing understandings of seismic data and pre-eruption seismic patterns, the workshops helped increase collaboration and sharing of experiences among volcano hazards and risk mitigation institutions in Latin America.

2009 Workshop on Satellite Remote Sensing and Lahar Hazard Modeling at Volcanoes, Bandung, Indonesia

VDAP, along with colleagues from Michigan Tech University, led a workshop on satellite remote sensing and debris flow modeling in February of 2009. Twenty members of CVGHM, along with two members of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology attended the workshop, which was held at CVGHM headquarters in Bandung. The workshop provided training and software to enable CVGHM and colleagues to access and process satellite remote sensing data for Indonesian volcanoes and to conduct in-house computer modeling of hazard zones for potential lahar innundation.