22 Members and 1 guest Zoomed in to our weekly Zoom Meeting last week.
 
Co-President Penny submitted her apologies, but Co-President Lesley stepped in to chair the meeting.
 
A few Club Notices as reported below were tabled prior to our guest speaker taking the floor;
 
  • We are still awaiting confirmation from the Remuera Golf Club, to see if our last get-together for the year, on 11 December, can be held at the club.  Watch this space for more detail.
  • Either way the Foodbank collection at New World on the 11th Dec is confirmed.
  • Peter B confirmed that the Working Bee was proceeding on Nov 21, as now reported below.
 
Our Guest Speaker, Dr. Ian Smith was then introduced to the Zoomers. 
 
The title of Dr Smith's talk was "Living With Volcanoes".  Dr Smith is now retired, having spent his entire working life studying volcanos.  The study of volcanoes and their eruptions has taken on renewed significance over the last 40 years, as major eruptions around the world have impacted communities and disrupted patterns of human activity.

In parallel with that, there has been an extraordinary development in techniques focused on understanding how volcanoes work, and how the potentially dangerous impact of their eruptions can be mitigated.  Ian’s research has focused on volcanoes of the ’Pacific Rim of Fire’ particularly the southwest Pacific Islands and New Zealand.  He has worked as volcanologist at the Central Volcanological Observatory in Rabaul, Papua New Guinea, the University of Toronto in Canada and at the University of Auckland.

Ian knows his subject well and explained that Volcanoes are like politicians - unpredictable, and they don't always do what you want!  He advised us that the Auckland Seismic monitor is currently "quiet", (which was good to hear), but it won't always be like that, hence the importance of constant monitoring and studying.

A very interesting talk and sincere thanks to Dr Smith for his time.