Outreach and Engagement
The Bristol Volcanology Group spends a lot of time connecting with our local community, but also with the communities in areas where our research is based. From engaging with our museum next door, to conveying message about volcanic risk to vulnerable communities, our scientists are committed to a strong focus on volcanic education.
Local projects and outreach
Bristol Rocks @ The Bristol Museum
In April 2025, the volcanology group helped to host Bristol Rocks with a distinctly volcano theme. We brought our erupting disco dancefloor - where you had decide how to escape the flows - and some of our favourite rocks. As part of this, some of us featured in the 'How to become a Volcanologist' section for The Bristol Museum.
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Film Screenings with Volcanologists
As part of our close connection with local organizations and artistic outreach, we have been asked to take part in volcanic film screenings at Bristol's cultural cinema institution - The Watershed. Most recently, our Head of School and Professor of Volcanology, Dr. Alison Rust was asked to give an introduction prior to a screening of National Geographic's "Fire of Love" - followed by an open Q&A table in the bar, featuring our Volcanology Group and some our prized volcanic display samples - pints and pumice!
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UK Science Festivals
Bristol goes to the Manchester Science Festival in October 2024. As part of the 'Sensing Volcanoes' team a crew from Bristol travelled up to take part in our all singing, (some dancing), hearing and smelling volcano exhibit along with colleagues from Manchester, Oxford and UEA. The serious side to this display was a demonstration of the many ways in which we detect volcanic behaviour changes - vital in saving lives when volcano become active . At the end of the exhibit it was packed up and brought back to Bristol - where it is now available for local events!
Conference Outreach Fair
In 2024, the Bristol Volcanology Group hosted the 60th anniversary conference of the UK Volcanic and Magmatic Studies Group (VMSG). As part of this, we organized the Bristol Volcano Science Festival at The Watershed Bar and Cinema - open to the public on a busy Friday evening! We hosted a film screening (Into the Inferno) with introduction and Q&A by Prof Clive Oppenheimer, and two open event rooms with a variety of hands-on volcanic exhibits - from thin sections and hand samples, to poetry, to popular science volcano books, and the Sensing Volcanoes dancefloor!
External community projects
Missives - A staged reading
Following an acclaimed performance in Montserrat the play co-written by researchers from Bristol, Oxford and UEA with Chadd Cumberbatch and A-DZiko Simba Gegele went on a tour in the UK courtesy of the Being Human Fesitival. The picture here shows Chadd and A-dZiko at our well attended talk at MShed for Friends of the museums reflecting on our experiences of the Soufriere Hills eruption on Montserrat.
