Explorer’s Club Pathfinder Grant
We are excited to announce that our PhD Candidate at the University of Sheffield, Rebecca England, has received a Pathfinder Grant from the Explorer’s Club to continue work on the SpectroGas, her novel, low-cost solution to gas monitoring.
Rebecca developed the SpectroGas to combat several problems with existing gas monitoring systems, primarily the expense of the instruments and their reliance on electrochemical sensors which degrade and can fall victim to cross-sensitivity, limiting the frequency and reliability of their measurements. Rebecca has solved these problems by creating a low-cost instrument that utilises broadband spectroscopy to measure SO₂ and H₂S alongside CO₂ and H₂O, avoiding cross-sensitivity and producing reliable, high-frequency gas ratios.
Rebecca and Dr. Tom Pering travelled to Iceland last year to do a preliminary field test of the SpectroGas and after some further fine-tuning are embarking on a field campaign in Costa Rica this August alongside colleagues at the Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Costa Rica (OVSICORI). The Pathfinder Grant will fund work at two different volcanoes; Poas and Turrialba, where the SpectroGas will work alongside existing observatory monitoring equipment to capture a range of volcanic degassing styles. In so doing, they hope to demonstrate the accuracy and range of ability the SpectroGas has across diverse conditions.
The volcanoes of Costa Rica offer a broad spectrum of volcanic degassing types, from open-vent systems to crater-lake volcanoes and geothermal fields. Turrialba has been persistently active for the past 20 years and activity has increased significantly since 2014, causing disruption to the nearby capital city of San José, affecting the lives of approximately three million residents. However, Turrialba is home to a permanent gas-monitoring system, which makes it an ideal candidate for comparing the results of the SpectroGas against existing instruments. Poas, an active hydrothermal system made up of a variety of volcanic gases, has two crater lakes with frequent phreatic and phreatomagmatic eruptions as well as a fumerol field. Poas is easily accessible from San José and is also well monitored, so another ideal location for comparing the ability of the SpectroGas to existing gas monitoring systems, in a more unique setting.
We are very excited to visit Costa Rica and field test the SpectroGas. We will be sure to have updates from the field on our social media pages when the team travels in August, so make sure to follow us or check the news section of our website for the highlights.
