杏吧原创

Mount Paektu鈥檚 last eruption was one of the biggest in human history. Now, North Korea are reaching out to UK scientists, says seismologist James Hammond

Tell us what you are doing in North Korea.
I鈥檓 part of a joint project with North Korean scientists to understand the mount Paektu volcano, on the border of North Korea and China. Its last eruption 1000 years ago was one of the largest in human history. The whole top of the volcano blew off. There are still tens of metres of rock and ash deposits. In the early 2000s, it showed signs of life 鈥� an increase in earthquakes was recorded, and some signs of inflation.

You mean the volcano鈥檚 sides were bulging?
Exactly. These were signs it wasn鈥檛 as dormant as we thought. That piqued everyone鈥檚 interest. With its history, it鈥檚 quite a worrying volcano.

What do we know about the last eruption?
The exact size of the last eruption is not well characterised. Chinese scientists have worked on it a lot in the last 15 years, but before that there were only a few studies. The only eruption we can compare it to is mount Tambora in Indonesia in 1815, after which the world had a year without summer. It looks like mount Paektu didn鈥檛 have a similar effect, but we don鈥檛 know why. These are the big questions that we hope to understand.

How did you get involved?
North Korea wanted an international partnership to try to understand this volcano better. They ended up indirectly contacting Clive Oppenheimer at the University of Cambridge, who I had worked with in the past. He called me and asked, 鈥淗ave you ever wanted to go to North Korea?鈥�

How quickly did the project come together?
We had about two weeks鈥� notice, then we went out there. We flew up to the volcano with about 30 North Korean scientists, who took us on a tour of their seismic observatories. Then we had two days of discussions. By the end, it was clear that we had common goals.

What are some of those goals?
A big aim is to use seismology to look inside the volcano, a bit like a doctor would do with a CT scan. To do that well, you need to look from all sides. This is a chance to get North Korean data to add to the Chinese results and form a more complete picture of what鈥檚 driving the volcano. We deployed six seismometers in August, and they鈥檙e all recording now. We鈥檒l collect the full data set by August next year.

You are one of only a handful of outside scientists to work in North Korea鈥�
In 2011, we were told we were the first Western scientists to visit their volcano observatories, which was quite special. It鈥檚 clear that the North Koreans have been working on this volcano for years. We hope to help them bring that work to the international community.

What is your impression of their science?
It鈥檚 clear there鈥檚 a high level of understanding. Obviously some things are difficult for them 鈥� like access to recent papers. But, on the whole, I am impressed by their expertise.