Autumn Newsletter 2025

VolcanoTech Incorporation:

After a busy and productive summer, the team have settled back into their academic responsibilities and been hard at work preparing for the upcoming VolcanoTech spinoff from the University of Sheffield, marking our official incorporation as a company. We have worked very hard toward this goal since the summer of 2023, over the past two years there have been exciting developments in our UV camera technology as well as the evolution of new equipment such as the PiGas. We are extremely excited to begin the next phase of VolcanoTech and continue working toward our goal of assisting volcanic monitoring organisations and researchers to provide better support to their communities through access to vital technology and affordable monitoring equipment. 

 Data Telemetry and Live Data:

In June, Dr. Tom Pering travelled to Lastarria, in Chile, where he worked alongside our long-term collaborators, Ckelar Volcanes to install an updated version of our PiCam, bringing it in line with our most recent Raspberry Pi 5 infrastructure, as well as a Starlink antenna. Data telemetry has been a goal we have worked toward for a long time, as many of our PiCam Permanent systems live in very remote locations. Starlink enables us to access data remotely from around the globe, making data collection much simpler and safer in many cases. The latest collected UV data from Lastarria, including our live beta test of overnight processing using a cloud-based server, can be found on our website under the Live Data tab.

IAVCEI 2025

In early July, the whole team attended the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior (IAVCEI) conference in Geneva. This conference is always a highlight of the VolcanoTech calendar, with ample opportunities to catch up with our colleagues and to share our latest research and projects, and this year’s meeting did not disappoint. It was a fantastic, collaborative event, where our team presented our work with the PiCam UV monitoring System, reflected on our results from our installation at Reventador in Ecuador, shared the developments in our latest processing protocols using machine learning, and previewed some of our latest instrumentation. 

Latest Visit to Kilauea

Later in July, Dr. Tom Pering returned to Hawaii in continued collaboration with the Hawaii Volcanoes Observatory (HVO) and the United States Geological Survey (USGS). He successfully upgraded the PiCam at Kilauea to Raspberry Pi 5, bringing it in line with our UV camera systems in Ecuador and Chile. He also integrated overnight processing procedures. We are thrilled to have a PiCam system at Kilauea, and to have witnessed such a range of shifting activity there over the past few years. When the camera was initially installed, there was still an active lava lake in the summit crater; our PiCam has since witnessed the activity evolve into the current series of dramatic fountaining eruptions. Work is underway to share some of this data via publication, so keep an eye on our website and social media pages for the latest. 

Volcanology in Practice Symposium

Earlier this month, Dr. Tom Pering attended the Volcanology in Practice symposium in Niigata, Japan. We were honored to be one of the official sponsors of the meeting, and Dr. Pering gave a keynote lecture about our UV PiCams as well as hosting a workshop covering monitoring tools and technology. He also shared the work of our PhD candidate, Rebecca England, who is developing a SpectroGas device. Dr. Pering enjoyed the conference and was excited to meet many new faces and share our latest developments. 

Upcoming Events

As always we have a busy calendar here at VolcanoTech. If you want to meet up with a member of our team for a chat, you can catch them at one of the following events coming up in the next few months. For more details you can visit the Upcoming Events page on our website.

• CIGEFLU International Course of Geochemistry of Volcanic and Geothermal Fluids
  October 26 - November 1 2025, San Pedro de Atacama, Chile
  Dr. Thomas Wilkes will be teaching on gas monitoring and instrumentation

• RGS Explore Weekend
  October 31 - November 2 2025, London, United Kingdom
  Rebecca England will be attending

• GRSG Annual Conference
  December 8 - December 10 2025, London, United Kingdom
  Rebecca England will be presenting

• VMSG Annual Conference
  January 5 - January 7 2026, Southampton, United Kingdom
  Dr. Tom Pering will be attending.

We will be making some improvements and additions to our website, including a Publications page where you can find all our latest research, and improving our Live Data page. 

There will be a new software update released soon for our existing PiCam users, We will post further information on our website and social media account when this update goes live.

Dr. Pering and the Ckelar Volcanes team at Lastarria Volcano, Chile

The VolcanoTech team at IAVCEI in Geneva.

Dr. Pering with Trisha and Mike from HVO at Kilauea, Hawaii