Third Pod From The Sun

Many people have emergency kits packed to flee or survive forces of nature like floods, hurricanes, or wildfire. But what do you throw in your bag when you expect to rush toward a natural hazard? Geologist John Ewert has his go-kit packed with portable seismometers and gas-monitoring equipment, ready to mobilize when a volcano starts to rumble. Ewert started his career at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, Washington in 1980, months after the explosive eruption of Mount St. Helens. He has encountered a wide variety of volcanoes and volcanic personalities as a member of USGS’ Volcano Disaster Assistance Program (VDAP), formed in 1986 to deploy scientists and equipment to awakening volcanoes around the world at the request of local science agencies or governments. The program faced its first big challenge in 1991, at a previously unknown volcano in the Philippines called Pinatubo. The VDAP team and Philippine volcanologists scrambled to get equipment on the mountain and anal