US experts offer support

A TIMELY visit by two volcano experts with the USGS-USAID volcano disaster assistance programme (VDAP), Dr Christoph Kern and Cynthia Werner, provided much needed support for the recent eruption of Mt Ulawun in West New Britain.
The pair arrived in Rabaul on June 24 with an initial plan to assist the Rabaul Volcano Observatory (RVO) in installing gas-monitoring instrumentation on Mt Ulawun, located on the border of West New Britain and East New Britain provinces.
However, their mission was diverted into an eruption response when Ulawun erupted on June 26.
Kern and Werner spent the next several days working at the RVO to assist the local volcanologists in their monitoring efforts of the ongoing activity at Ulawun.
After the Mt Ulawun volcanic activity subsided, the team led by Kern made a courtesy call to the US Embassy in Port Moresby before travelling to West New Britain where they assisted RVO staff in preparing aerial gas and photogrammetry surveys of the volcano.
The team moved forward in staging a set-up area in Bialla, 50km southwest of Ulawun, from where they supported RVO engineers in installing a gas-monitoring station at Ulamona mission on the western edge of the volcanic edifice.
“Our plan was to install several scanning differential optical absorption spectrometers (Scanning DOAS),” Kern said.
“These instruments measure the spectrum of sunlight as it passes through any gases emitted by the volcano.”
She said some of the gases, especially sulfur dioxide, slightly absorb certain parts of the sun’s spectrum.
By measuring this absorption, the instruments monitor the emission rate of volcanic gases without having to be installed directly at the hazardous summit of the volcano.
“Since volcanic gases are often emitted in the air ahead of rising magma, we these measurements would provide information for eruption forecasting,” Kern said.
The final leg of their work in the province saw the VDAP team travel back to Rabaul to conduct training for RVO staff.