Professor Tamsin Mather
About
Professor Tamsin Mather is interested in volcanoes as natural hazards, natural resources (e.g. geothermal power and critical metals) and as key planetary processes that are vital in maintaining habitats for life. Her specific interests include the chemistry of volcanic plumes, the effects of volcanic emissions on the environment, metal emissions, the combining eruptive histories, geochemistry and geophysics to understand volcanic behaviour and the physical structure and stability of volcanoes. She has also studied the emissions from an oil depot fire (Buncefield 2005) and is generally interested in the global mercury cycle, as well as other biogeochemical cycles.
Expertise
- Volcanoes
- Volcanic emissions and the early Earth atmosphere
- Early earth atmosphere
- Oil fire plumes
- Mercury from volcanoes
- Volcanically-induced ozone loss in the stratosphere
Selected publications
- Cryptic degassing and protracted greenhouse climates after flood basalt events (Nature Geoscience, 2024)
- Jurassic large igneous province carbon emissions constrained by sedimentary mercury (Nature Geoscience, 2024)
- A satellite chronology of plumes from the April 2021 eruption of La Soufrière, St Vincent (Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 2023)
- A deep active learning approach to the automatic classification of volcano-seismic events (Frontiers in Earth Science, 2022)
- Understanding the environmental impacts of large fissure eruptions: Aerosol and gas emissions from the 2014-2015 Holuhraun eruption (Iceland), (Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 2017)
- Causes of unrest at silicic calderas in the East African Rift: New constraints from InSAR and soil-gas chemistry at Aluto volcano, Ethiopia (Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems, 2016)
- Volcanoes and the environment: lessons for understanding Earth's past and future from studies of present-day volcanic emissions (Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, 2015)
- Global link between deformation and volcanic eruption quantified by satellite imagery (Nature Communications, 2014)
- Observations of the plume generated by the December 2005 oil depot explosions and prolonged fire at Buncefield (Hertfordshire, UK) and associated atmospheric changes (Proceedings of the Royal Society A, 2007)
- Electrification of volcanic plumes (Surveys in Geophysics, 2006)
- The importance of volcanic emissions in the global atmospheric mercury cycle (Atmospheric Environment, 2003)
Media experience
Professor Tamsin Mather has experience of working with the media, including BBC News.
Recent media work
- 'Can We Just Throw Our Plastic Garbage Into A Volcano?' (NPR Science Friday, 2025)
- 'Threads of fire: uncovering volcanic secrets with Pele’s hair and tears' (Physics World podcast, 2025)
- Volcanologist Tamsin Mather on her 'adventures in volcanoland' (Boston’s NPR WBUR, 2025)
- ‘Adventures In Volcano Land: Conversations With Volcanologists’ (Viewpoints Radio, American Urban Radio Networks, 2024)
- Unearthing the Secrets of Volcanoes and Rocks (The Pulse on WHYY for NPR, 2024)
- Something You Should Know: 'How Your Refrigerator Changed Your Life & Why Are There Volcanoes?’ (podcast interview, 2024)
- How are volcanoes formed on other planets? (Oxford Sparks podcast, 2024)
- The Infinite Monkey Cage: ‘Supervolcanoes’ (BBC Radio 4, 2023)
- The Infinite Monkey Cage: ‘Volcanoes’ (BBC Radio 4, 2018)
- The Life Scientific: 'Tamsin Mather on what volcanic plumes reveal about our planet' (BBC Radio 4, 2017)
- The Forum: 'The Unpredictable Planet: Understanding Volcanoes and Earthquakes' (BBC News, 2016)
- Costing the Earth ‘Lava: A Dangerous Game’ (BBC Radio 4, 2015)
Languages
English