World renowned volcanologist Dr. Christopher Newhall visited the University of Southeastern Philippines (USEP)-Obrero Campuson March 10-12, 2017 and conducted a 3-day lecture series on volcanoes at the College of Education AVR.
Dr. Newhall was part of the Philippine-United States team that worked to forecast the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in Luzon 26 years ago. The forecast of Mt. Pinatubo’s 1991 climactic eruption has resulted to saving the lives of at least 5,000 people and $250 million property.He was also associated with the US Geological Survey, Washington University, Earth Observation Station in Singapore, University of the Philippines-National Institute of Geological Sciences and PHIVOLCS.
The lecture series is entitled “Earth Facts: Volcanoes and its effect to the Environment” which discusses the different topics on the eruption of Mount Pinatubo, the relationship between tectonics and volcanism, the caldera systems, the changing climate due to eruption of volcanoes, the geothermal energy and the relationship of volcanism and mineralization.
Participants in the seminar included students taking up the courses of geology, mining engineering and metallurgy from USEP, Caraga State University (CSU) and Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT) as well as geologists from Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) and members of Central 911 Davao and Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction Management of Mabini and Maco in Compostela Valley Province. Geologists from Apex Mining Company were also included.
The 3-day lecture was part of the continuing effort of the partnership between USEP, the MGB-Davao, Apex Mining Company Inc., Mindanao Association of Mining Engineers (MAEM) and the Alliance of Responsible Miners of Region XI (ARMOR-RXI) to provide education and updates on scientific discoveries and technology to the students and the different stakeholders. (PR)
