Tamsin Mather | |
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![]() Tamsin Mather at the summit of Villarrica volcano, Chile in 2003 | |
Born | Tamsin Alice Mather 15 December 1976 [1] [2] |
Alma mater | University of Cambridge (MSci, MPhil, PhD) |
Children | Two [4] |
Awards |
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Scientific career | |
Fields | Volcanology [5] Atmospheric chemistry [5] |
Institutions | University of Oxford |
Thesis | Near-source chemistry of tropospheric volcanic plumes (2004) |
Website | www |
Tamsin Alice Mather FRS MAE (born 1976) [1] [2] [3] is a British Professor of Earth Sciences at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford [5] [6] [7] [8] and a Fellow of University College, Oxford. [9] She studies volcanic processes and their impacts on the Earth's environment [10] and has appeared on the television and radio.
Mather was born and raised in Bristol, the daughter of William Mather and Felicity Mather. [3] She was educated at St John's College, Cambridge, where she was awarded a Master of Science degree in 1999, a Master of Philosophy (MPhil) degree in 2000 and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 2004. [1] [11] As an undergraduate she studied the Natural Sciences Tripos before switching to the History and Philosophy of Science for her MPhil (in the same MPhil class as Helen Macdonald and Katherine Angel). [1] She spent a year working abroad before returning to science for her PhD which was completed in the Department of Earth Sciences and investigated the chemistry of volcanic plumes in the troposphere. [11] [12] [13] Her PhD involved working in Chile, Nicaragua and Italy. [13] [14]
Mather studies volcanic behaviour working to understand volcanoes as natural hazards, planetary scale processes and natural resources. [15] [16] Mather is a Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford and a fellow of University College, Oxford. [17]
She is part of the Centre for the Observation and Modeling of Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Tectonics (COMET) project, [18] which is a “collaborative centre for understanding tectonic and volcanic processes and hazards though the integrated application of Earth Observation (EO) data, ground-based measurements, and geophysical models”.
Other current projects include: the European Research Council funded project Revealing hidden volcanic triggers for global environmental change events in Earth’s geological past using mercury (Hg); Rethinking Natural Resources [19] funded by the Oxford Martin School.
Previous projects include the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) funded RiftVolc project, [20] researching past and current volcanism and volcanic hazards in the main Ethiopian rift; the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) funded Volatiles, Geodynamics & Solid Earth Controls on the Habitable Planet programme researching deep Earth influences in the long-term evolution of the Earth; [21] the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Strengthening Resilience in Volcanic Areas collaboration, (STREVA) which looked to establish a risk assessment framework for volcanoes. [22]
Her research into the role of volcanism in planetary scale processes [23] includes the discovery that volcanic vents perform nitrogen fixation making it available to for use by life, possibly a significant source on the early Earth as life was evolving. [24] [25] and the potential of the element mercury as a tracer for past large-scale volcanism with widespread environmental impacts including mass extinction events. [26]
Mather's other research includes investigations into volcanic plumes, [27] the effects of volcanic emissions and aerosols on the environment, and the structure and stability of volcanoes. [28] She has also studied the emissions from Buncefield fire at the Buncefield oil depot in 2005 [28] and is interested in the mercury cycle, [29] as well as other biogeochemical cycles.
Mather has led or collaborated on work studying volcanoes around the world, both in situ and using remote sensing data from ground or satellite based platforms. [4] Volcanoes Mather has studied include Bárðarbunga, [30] Hekla, [31] and Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland, [32] the Santorini caldera in Greece, [33] the Villarica, Lascar, Chaitén [34] and Calbuco volcanoes in Chile, [35] [13] [36] Masaya Volcano in Nicaragua [37] (where she was held up at gunpoint), [4] [38] Mount Etna in Italy, [39] Galeras in Colombia, [40] the Santiaguito lava dome complex in Guatemala, [41] and the Great Rift Valley, Ethiopia. [20] [42]
Mather's research has been funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), [43] the European Research Council and the Royal Society. [23]
In 2005 she served as a Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) Fellow [44] producing a POSTnote note on Carbon capture and storage, [45] she served as co-editor-in-chief of Earth and Planetary Science Letters 2014–2019, on the board of directors of the Geochemical Society 2017–2019, [44] on the Natural Environment Research Council Science Board/Committee 2017–2021 and on the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program Science Advisory Group 2019–2022. She currently serves as the Chair of the Volcanic and Magmatic Studies Group for UK and Ireland [46] and the Police Science Council. [47]
In 2016 Mather appeared on the BBC World Service discussing volcanoes and earthquakes. [48] Mather was interviewed on BBC Radio 4's The Life Scientific in 2017. [4] She has taken part in Pint of Science, lectured at the Royal Institution [49] [50] and appeared on podcasts. [4] She was a guest on The Infinite Monkey Cage alongside Jo Brand and Clive Oppenheimer in February 2018 [51] and spoke at New Scientist Live in 2018. [12] and was again a guest on The Infinite Monkey Cage in July 2023 [52]
In 2024 she published first book 'Adventures in Volcanoland' in the UK (Abacus) and USA (Hanover Square Press).
Santa María Volcano is a large active volcano in the western highlands of Guatemala, in the Quetzaltenango Department near the city of Quetzaltenango. It is part of the mountain range of the Sierra Madre.
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The geology of Iceland is unique and of particular interest to geologists. Iceland lies on the divergent boundary between the Eurasian plate and the North American plate. It also lies above a hotspot, the Iceland plume. The plume is believed to have caused the formation of Iceland itself, the island first appearing over the ocean surface about 16 to 18 million years ago. The result is an island characterized by repeated volcanism and geothermal phenomena such as geysers.
Yate Volcano is a large, glaciated stratovolcano located in the southern Andes, in the Los Lagos Region of Chile, south of the Reloncaví Estuary. Yate lies on the major regional Liquiñe-Ofqui Fault Zone, and is located 10 km north-east of the smaller Hornopiren volcano. The last known eruption occurred in 1090 CE. There are no historical records of recent volcanic activity, but there is strategic evidence of smaller eruptions sometime in the Holocene. The volcano is named after Juan Yates, also known as John Yates, a settler of Puerto Americano who played a significant role in the exploration and colonisation of Patagonia.
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Yanteles is an isolated stratovolcano composed of five glacier-capped peaks along an 8 km-long NE-trending ridge. It is located approximately 30 km (19 mi) south of the Corcovado volcano in the Chilean X Region within the Corcovado National Park. The name Yanteles can refer only to the main summit, which is also known as Volcán Nevado.
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The surface of Venus is dominated by volcanic features and has more volcanoes than any other planet in the Solar System. It has a surface that is 90% basalt, and about 65% of the planet consists of a mosaic of volcanic lava plains, indicating that volcanism played a major role in shaping its surface. There are more than 1,000 volcanic structures and possible periodic resurfacing of Venus by floods of lava. The planet may have had a major global resurfacing event about 500 million years ago, from what scientists can tell from the density of impact craters on the surface. Venus has an atmosphere rich in carbon dioxide, with a pressure that is 90 times that of Earth's atmosphere.
Gillian Rose Foulger is a British geologist and academic born in 1952 in Ipswich. Foulger plays a major role in coordinating the global debate in the category of Earth Science, on whether or not deep mantle thermal plumes exist and create “hot spot” volcanism.
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Derek Keir has been an associate professor of geophysics at the University of Southampton since 2015. In 2013 he received the Bullerwell Lecture award from the British Geophysical Association (BGA) for significant contributions to geophysics.
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Marie Edmonds is a Professor of volcanology and Earth Sciences at the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge whose research focuses on the physics and chemistry of volcanic eruptions and magmatism and understanding volatile cycling in the solid Earth as mediated by plate tectonics. She is interested in the social and economic impacts of natural hazards; and the sustainable use of Earth's mineral and energy resources. Professor Edmonds is the Vice President and Ron Oxburgh Fellow in Earth Sciences at Queens' College, Cambridge; and the Deputy Head of Department and Director of Research at the Earth Sciences Department, University of Cambridge.
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Juliet J. Biggs is a British geologist who is Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol. Her research uses satellite geodesy and interferometric synthetic-aperture radar (InSAR) to understand the physics of the Earth's crust. She was awarded the American Geophysical Union John Wahr Award in 2017 and a European Research Council (ERC) consolidator grant in 2020.
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