Our speaker this month was Professor Simon Lockley from the department of Geography at Royal Holloway (RHUL).  

We all know about the hazards associated with volcanic eruptions (such as the destruction of Pompeii and, in more recent times, the disruption to aviation caused by the cloud of ash in 2010) but volcanic ash (tephra) is very useful as a dating tool.  

We learnt about the different types of volcanic ash (minerals and glass) and were given an outline of the various fields in which information from studies of tephra has been used.  Areas of particular interest included patterns of climate change, long term volcanic history (such as the area around Naples) and many applications in archaeology.