Tamsyn Mather

And in some places, they're very remote from populations.

So again, maybe it's a little less important to keep them well monitored at all.

But a really powerful tool we have now actually are satellites.

So we can use satellite remote sensing, basically satellites that send radar beams down to the surface to map the shape of the surface.

We could actually use these types of satellite to monitor volcanoes globally without needing there to be infrastructure on the ground.

An erupting volcano?

Yes, absolutely.

It's one of, well, I think one of the most astonishing or striking things that you can experience as a human.

A little bit.

I think it's important that one is a little bit frightened.

I mean, these are enormously powerful forces and you need to show them due respect.

And the type of eruption as well.

Yes.

So the gases that come out are a cocktail of different components.

So there's a lot of steam in the gases, a lot of water.

And that doesn't tend to cause so many problems.

There's a lot of water vapour in our atmosphere anyway.

We see it every day as clouds.

But there's also a lot of sulphur dioxide, which is an acidic gas.

Other acidic gases like hydrogen chloride and hydrogen fluoride.