Dr. Tamie J. Jovanelly (aka Dr. Jo) is a Professor of Geology and a Research Affiliate at Berry College, Georgia. She received her PhD from Kent State University, her MS from the University of Nebraska, and her BS from the University of Michigan.
Over two decades, her research has been broad-scoping and impressive. She is the sole author of the award-winning and best-selling monograph Iceland: Tectonics, Volcanics, and Glacial Features (Wiley, 2020).
In continuation of her investigations in climate change, she received a Research Scientist position on a cruise to the International Territories of Svalbard in 2022.
Dr. Jo’s forthcoming book Volcanoes: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, July 2026), draws on more than 20 years of global research to provide an accessible exploration of how volcanoes shape our landscapes, climate, cultures, and travel experiences around the globe.
With more travelers seeking meaningful, educational, and experience-driven adventures, Dr. Jo offers a unique perspective on why geology is becoming one of travel media’s most fascinating emerging subjects. Through her tours and fieldwork, she’s seen firsthand how volcanoes, glaciers, tectonic landscapes, and national parks can transform the way people connect with science and the natural world.
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
Welcome to the Travel Addict Podcast.
(00:02):
Your host and fellow traveladdict, Malcolm Teesdale, is
here to take you into the heartof the world's most fascinating
destinations.
He talks with passionateglobetrotters and fearless
explorers who share their wildjourneys and cultural insights
from around the world.
Or sometimes he just chats byhimself, describing enriching
travel experiences.
(00:22):
So buckle up and let's hit theroad, because the world is
calling and we're answering.
SPEAKER_02 (00:27):
Hello everybody, Malcolm Teesdale here, the
travel addict.
And uh we're going to talkabout, I would say, an explosive
subject today.
And uh all right, you're gonnarot with laughter, I'm sure.
But um on the line with me is uma lady who travels quite a bit,
is Dr.
SPEAKER_03 (00:48):
Tammy Giovanelli?
Did I pronounce that?
SPEAKER_00 (00:52):
Good job, that's right.
SPEAKER_03 (00:54):
That's not bad for a first attempt.
And Dr.
SPEAKER_02 (00:57):
Tammy is currently in Georgia, uh, but she um
professor of geology.
That's why we've got thissubject today we're going to
talk about.
And it intrigued me because I'vebeen to a few places myself
where there's been volcanoes,not erupting, of course.
And uh you got your PhD whatfrom Kent University?
SPEAKER_00 (01:12):
Kent State University, yep.
SPEAKER_02 (01:14):
Kent State University.
Well, great stuff.
And uh that's what you do today.
You're a geologist and you goall over.
SPEAKER_00 (01:21):
Yeah, yeah.
I'm a I'm a Jane of a lot ofdifferent trades.
Um, so my PhD was looking attsunamis in the state of
Washington and makingcomparisons to Japan.
So I had a collaborativeposition where I worked with the
University of Tokyo, and mymaster's degree was from
University of Nebraska, Go BigRed.
And I studied groundwater andsurface water interactions.
(01:44):
And then when I finished my PhD,I went to Barrie College in
Rome, Georgia.
And um, I was a professor in theclassroom for 17 years, and um,
there my research focused on umglobal water quality.
And so I made comparisonsbetween developed, undeveloped,
and developing countries, and Ifocused on major river systems,
(02:06):
including the Amazon, the Nile,um, the Ganges, and a variety of
other places in Europe.
So my research took me abroadevery summer.
And um, in addition to mypersonal research on water
quality, I would also takestudents abroad.
So we had this fantastic studyabroad program where I was
(02:26):
organizing trips and I wouldtake students to beautiful
places to learn geology.
And then the other thing um thatI kind of fell into is um is
writing books.
And so um this past uh thiswell, I guess two years ago now
I resigned from the classroomand I did that so I could focus
(02:47):
on being a full-time sciencewriter.
SPEAKER_02 (02:49):
Excellent.
Excellent.
You mentioned something there,Japan.
I'll be there next month.
Oh, beautiful.
That's a great time to go.
I'm just uh fly, I was gonna flyinto Seoul Korea first and fly
over to Tokyo, but I got aflight straight into Hanida
Airport there in Tokyo.
So uh I'll be there for about aweek and a half.
So it's it's it's it's I'mlooking forward to that.
(03:10):
Um I'm actually speaking on acruise ship that's actually uh
uh sailed all the way aroundJapan.
SPEAKER_00 (03:16):
Oh, perfect.
SPEAKER_02 (03:17):
So I see Mount Fuji.
Um and uh obviously uh Kyoto.
It's is Mount Fuji volcanic, bythe way, just curious.
SPEAKER_00 (03:25):
Yeah, yep, it's still volcanically active, and
it's uh one of the mostimpressionable volcanoes in in
what I study.
So that was a very that was avery first, and I write about
this in the preface of my my newbook that's coming out this
month.
Um, but Mount Fuji, when Ivisited, was the very first
volcano that I hiked.
(03:46):
Um, and it was really importantfor me to understand
volcanology.
SPEAKER_02 (03:51):
Wow.
Well, if it erupts next month,it's my fault, right?
Yeah, yeah, okay.
Well, great.
What actually um caused you to,in the first place, to sort of
get interested in volcanoes orthis subject?
SPEAKER_00 (04:07):
Yeah.
Um so I again like my backgroundis pretty diverse as a as a
geologist, and I've always beenintrigued by volcanoes, and it
really started out as like ahobby.
Like I mentioned, Mount Fuji,and I was um uh in my my PhD
program when I ended up at theUniversity of Tokyo, and you
know, you can take thoseshinkens and those bullet trains
(04:29):
anywhere.
And so one of the first places II went was Mount Fuji.
And um, and at Mount Fuji, it isa volcano that's really
important to the culture, and soit's expected that you've hike
Mount Fuji at least one time inyour in your lifetime, and so
it's very much like a spiritualpilgrimage, and I kind of fell
(04:50):
into that.
And um hiking Mount Fuji, one ofthe traditional things to do is
you hike it at nighttime.
So you get to the you get to thebase camp at dark and then you
hike because the idea is thatyou're gonna get to the summit
by the time that the sun isrising.
So because it's a pilgrimage,it's it's very quiet, it's very
peaceful.
You're walking two by two andyou're um you're bouldering up
(05:14):
the size of this fantasticvolcano.
And I remember um being on thebullet train and I was reading
the lonely planet.
And in the lonely planet, itsaid, This hike is so easy, your
grandmother can do it.
And while there are manygrandmothers like on the flanks
of this volcano this night, itwas not particularly easy.
And so I really like embracedthat challenge.
(05:35):
And um me, as with others, wegot to the summit as the sun was
rising, and it was just um abeautiful, beautiful thing to be
able to see.
And and one of those things uhabout nature, another thing that
I remember about hiking MountFuji is it was like terribly
cold and rainy at base camp.
And then once we got above thecloud deck, the sky was this uh
(05:57):
beautiful turquoise green, therewas a crescent moon, and there
was a meteor shower.
Wow.
Um, so that is really whathooked me for the first time in
loving volcanoes as a hobby, asuh as for exercise and for the
connection to the environment.
And then as a geologist, I juststarted to study deeper and
(06:18):
deeper.
And when I went to um plan myfirst study abroad for students
in Iceland, Iceland, there's 33active volcanoes.
So pretty much everywhere youlook in the landscape is some
type of volcano or volcanicfeature, and that just drew me
in even deeper.
SPEAKER_02 (06:34):
That's interesting.
Well, I'll I'll be in Iceland inSeptember.
So not long, it's but at leastat least uh that I like that
place uh uh as well, but uh somany places I like that's that's
just a problem.
But you know, Mount Mount Fujiis classed as sacred mountain,
right?
So there's there's three of themin Japan, Haku and Tatao, I
think.
Anyway, but Mount Fuji issupposed to be sort of sacred,
(06:56):
so it's important to the peoplethere.
But you said you went at night.
Do you have a flashlight withyou?
SPEAKER_00 (07:01):
Yeah, we had had headlamps, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (07:03):
Yeah, I just wonder what the the hazards were.
It must be pretty smoothwalking, then like you're not
close to a a drop-off, are you?
Or is it is it safe?
SPEAKER_00 (07:13):
No, but it's uh it's definitely you know, you're
bouldering over, you know,massive lava fields and stuff
like that.
It's uh not Disneyland or pavedtrail or anything like that.
It's it takes quite a bit ofeffort to be able to get to the
summit.
SPEAKER_03 (07:25):
Yeah, how long how many hours did it take you,
Sammy?
About six hours?
SPEAKER_00 (07:28):
At least uh everybody eight hours.
SPEAKER_02 (07:31):
Oh, really?
So um it wasn't a case of youstop halfway in camp, you just
did the whole thing in one shot,did it?
SPEAKER_00 (07:37):
Yeah, you do the whole you do the whole thing at
night to get to the summit atsunrise, and then on the way
down, it's a little bit moreleisurely and jovial, and people
are talking and yeah, there yougo, but you're focused on
getting getting obviously tosomewhere.
SPEAKER_02 (07:49):
What's about 12,000 feet or something, is it?
SPEAKER_00 (07:51):
That's right.
SPEAKER_02 (07:52):
Yeah, okay, got it.
SPEAKER_00 (07:53):
Yeah, closer, but closer to 13, I think, but yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (07:56):
Yeah, I I won't have time to to do that myself, but
uh I'll just I'll be visitingthat area, so hopefully I'll
have a chance to sort of walkaround the base area.
But uh yeah, you're the secondperson I know who's actually
done Mount Fuji, so that's acongratulations.
Now something you mentioned inyour profile, geotourism is sort
of a big thing these days,right?
SPEAKER_00 (08:17):
Yeah.
Well, um, I think that at leastfor at least for me as a as a
geologist and um in teaching foralmost two decades, what I
realize is that if people peoplecan look at uh a volcano, I
think anybody can and appreciateit for its natural beauty.
(08:38):
But when you truly understandthe earth processes and how it's
formed and how it continues tochange in the landscape, I think
it makes it just that much moremagnificent and interesting.
And I think that people arelooking to connect with the
environment in different ways.
And so having thatunderstanding, it just
(09:00):
exemplifies the natural beauty.
SPEAKER_02 (09:02):
Yeah, I think it's very important.
Uh we it's we we have abeautiful world out there, and
we have to uh travel there andexplore it and learn how it
works, right?
Um, so it's it's important tounderstand how volcanoes work uh
for a little livelihood, I get,I guess, but it appreciates
everything.
I mean, there's still activevolcanoes on the planet, so you
never know what's going tohappen at any time, right?
(09:24):
So, you know, we just had thatearthquake in Venezuela, which
is horrific.
But you know, with thevolcanoes, I mean, um, then you
have potential tsunamis and allthat.
SPEAKER_00 (09:33):
Um there's 50, 40 to 50 active volcanoes on the
planet annually.
SPEAKER_02 (09:40):
So how often how often do they blow that top
typically?
SPEAKER_00 (09:45):
Uh uh different volcanoes have different
recurrence intervals and there'sdifferent types of uh of
eruptions, so that's uh a prettybroad question to to answer.
SPEAKER_02 (09:55):
Okay, I just wondered because I I went to uh
a place uh towards the end oflast year, uh, and I never
thought I'd go there, but I did,and it's got some um some huge
significance about it, isMontserrat.
SPEAKER_04 (10:09):
Oh, sure.
SPEAKER_02 (10:10):
Yeah, and of course that that uh volcano blew its
top and quite a few people died,but it's also uh where uh George
Martin built the recordingstudios there.
So a lot of famous musicalalbums were were made there uh
by by the Rolling Stones by DioStraits, and that's why they had
when after that went off,actually in recent history, um
(10:31):
then uh they had a tributeconcert at Rawl Out Hall London
to commemorate that.
But that, you know, when I wentthere, I was aiming to walk
around um that area, butMontserrat, I mean, it is it
when that last time it blew itstop, um the capital is Plymouth,
and it's the only capital cityin the world with zero
(10:52):
population.
SPEAKER_00 (10:53):
Is that right?
SPEAKER_02 (10:54):
Yeah, and uh it's walking around there, and uh you
know you could see the aftermathof when it happened many, many
years ago, but it'sunbelievable, really, just you
know, walking around there.
Hopefully that never happensagain, but uh anyway.
Um, but that's good.
So understanding the science ofvolcano is important, and um
(11:15):
it's it's I mean, is it nowpossible?
I think it is, to detect when avolcano is going to go off.
SPEAKER_00 (11:23):
So instrumentation has really helped with that.
Um, and there's a variety ofdifferent like types of
techniques.
So, like as an example, um,Iceland, which is kind of like
my home away from home, has beenvolcanically active really since
about 2020, about 2020, right,right, right about the time of
(11:43):
COVID or right right near after.
Um, and there's different typesof eruptions.
So you have explosive eruptionsor non-explosive eruptions, and
that has to do with the type ofmagma.
But really, with any type ofvolcano, you're looking at the
magma as it's coming to thesurface.
And so as that happens, the heatcloser to the surface is going
(12:03):
to increase.
And so you can measure that.
You can also measure how theground begins to swell or
inflate because that magma isoccupying new space underground.
And then you can look for likechanges in um in groundwater
temperature, you can look forlike changes in uh springs and
um their water chemistry.
(12:25):
And then what's really textbookis that usually as a precursor
before an eruption, you'll getwhat we call earthquake swarms.
And these aren't like bigearthquakes, they're like low
magnitude, low energyearthquakes, magnitude two,
three, but you can have like10,000 of these small
earthquakes before there's aneruption.
So we can look and monitor forthose um subtle distances, um,
(12:49):
subtle changes in theenvironment to give us clues as
to when a volcano might erupt.
Um, and what's fun is um now atMontetna, they are using these
robotic dogs.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (13:01):
Oh, really?
SPEAKER_00 (13:02):
Yeah, I don't know if you got to see them, but
they're they uh look like dogsand they're robots, and they um
are sent like ahead of like aresearch crew and they're
smelling for um for sulfur andfor um carbon monoxide and and
releases of carbon dioxide thatcould be dangerous to like
research teams.
Um and and so that's kind of a anew and fun technology that's
(13:24):
being implemented.
SPEAKER_02 (13:26):
Well, that's fantastic.
They they're able to do that,obviously.
Robots um that's amazing.
Um, but I think you suggestedthat if there's any sort of
earthquake um activity, it couldbe the sign of a nearby volcano.
Is that that what you suggest?
SPEAKER_00 (13:40):
Yeah, but but um but a lot of earthquakes.
So we're talking like more than10,000 low-level earthquakes
will could be recorded beforethere is an eruption.
Okay.
And that's again because themagma's uh approaching the
surface and it's occupyingspace.
And so the rock below the crustis starting to crack.
And as it's cracking, it'sgiving off energy.
SPEAKER_02 (14:01):
Okay.
Yeah, I just want becausevolcanoes when they go off,
obviously it affects um theweather, but it affects the
climate in long term, doesn'tit?
SPEAKER_00 (14:09):
It can, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (14:10):
Yeah, it can.
In in what way does it do that?
SPEAKER_00 (14:14):
Well, you can um you can either have a situation
where you have warming or youcan have a situation where you
go into a cooling phase.
Um, and it depends on the typeof gases then and the amount of
gases that are uh that areactually released into the into
the atmosphere.
SPEAKER_02 (14:31):
Oh, I just wondered, well, that's interesting.
And you may know this already.
I was in the the the uh thishappened.
I went to the island of St.
Lucia, beautiful island, acouple of years ago, and they
say that's the uh only countryin the world with a drive-in
volcano.
That could be true.
So I thought I've got to dothis.
(14:51):
I wasn't staying in therainforest, and we drove into
the volcano.
It was it was it was bubbling,and there was natural hot baths
there, and just got covered inmud and all that.
So I look like a still hole onmy findings, but but it was a
fabulous thing, you know.
It's just a danger it works,yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (15:09):
Yeah, I'm sure there was like the fountain of youth,
they're covered in that volcanicmud, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (15:14):
Volcanic.
So apparently it's um it's goodfor you, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00 (15:19):
Oh, that's what they like to say.
SPEAKER_02 (15:21):
Because I after that, my wife didn't come with
me at the time, so I went bymyself and I got back.
I told her it was apparentlyhealthy.
SPEAKER_03 (15:28):
She said, Send that to me.
SPEAKER_02 (15:29):
Well, how much younger do you feel then?
I said, about two weeks.
I don't know what it's saying,but um, but anyway, it's it's uh
a great experience there.
So you still do it today.
And obviously, you know, youmentioned Iceland.
Um there's nothing close toReykjavik, is there?
Are that is the most of thevolcanic activity in the middle
(15:51):
or close to the northern coast?
SPEAKER_00 (15:54):
Um so when we look at a map of Iceland, it's um
what's interesting about Icelandis that there's um two different
uh geological processes that aregoing to dictate the volcanic
activity.
So you have a hot spot, likewhite, but then you also have a
divergent plate boundary whereyou have these um two plates
(16:14):
that are pulling or spreadingapart.
So the North American plate ispulling away from the Eurasian
plate at a rate of about um twoinches per year.
So about 13 miles over thecourse of a million years.
So where you have this umspreading that's pulling apart,
that's where you can see theoutline of these volcanoes.
(16:36):
And so there's 33 activevolcanoes in in Iceland.
SPEAKER_02 (16:40):
That's amazing.
SPEAKER_00 (16:41):
Um Iceland's about the size of Virginia, so really
like anywhere you look in thelandscape, there's really some
type of volcanic volcanicactivity.
SPEAKER_02 (16:50):
Yeah, it's pretty stable though.
I can't when was the last timesomething went off in Iceland?
SPEAKER_00 (16:54):
Well, last year.
But there um Oh really?
Yeah, so um on the RainesePeninsula, so you have uh
Reykjavik.
Um, and if you fly into Iceland,you usually fly into Keflovik
International Airport.
So if you you're on the you'reon the Rainese Peninsula, and
that's where the volcanicactivity has been occurring
really since about 2020.
(17:15):
So um pretty much every summerthat I've been there since,
there's been some type ofvolcanic eruption.
But these are called fissureeruptions.
And so again, with a divergentplate boundary, you have these
um the crust that's being pulledapart, and with that spreading,
you have a conduit for magma tomore easily come to the earth's
surface.
So there's um they're calledfissure eruptions.
(17:37):
And so on Iceland, we've um seenevidence of this for the past
you know four years.
SPEAKER_02 (17:44):
Do the people who do the people who live there, and
it's a friendly place, it'sactually classic the safest
country in the world now, but umbut I'm just saying, do the
people that worry about the bigone coming?
SPEAKER_00 (17:55):
Well, um, they are certainly disaster prepared.
Like I have many friends thatlive there now, because they've
been going there for twodecades.
Everybody is um aware of theirnatural surroundings, they're
disaster prepared, but theydon't, they're not necessarily
afraid.
Um, and kind of like we have theUnited States Geological Survey,
(18:16):
they have what's called theIceland Meteorological Office,
and they do all the monitoringon these active volcanoes.
So the geologists there have areally keen sense of what's
happening, and they're reallygood at monitoring, and they're
really good at um at evacuationand giving warnings and time for
people to get out.
SPEAKER_04 (18:36):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (18:36):
And people heed those warnings too.
I think yeah, yeah, I thinkthat's important that the people
um are aware of the consequencesof volcanic activity and
understand that situation theyneed to leave.
SPEAKER_02 (18:50):
Yeah, exactly.
Um where was I?
Um yeah, I was sailing throughthe Mediterranean, and one of
the the the places we weresupposed to go to was Santorini,
but they couldn't go therebecause there was seismic
activity detected.
So that's one we didn't justdidn't go there, which was a
shame, really.
But then it went away.
A lot of people did evacuate theisland, but most people are
(19:11):
diehards just stayed there, youknow.
Right.
So, but I don't think anythinghappened then nothing serious
happened at the end of the dayanyway.
SPEAKER_00 (19:18):
So yeah, I think that's the the big difference in
the Icelandic culture is thatthey have a keen understanding
of the you know volcanics on theisland and really um appreciate
the geologists that you know aremonitoring the situations.
SPEAKER_02 (19:33):
Yeah.
What's the nearest one?
I mean, um you live where Ilive, there's nothing there.
But you know, even even in theair, it fairly they said, Oh,
there's been an earthquake hereclose by, but it's very, very
low, right?
But that's something going onunderground, I'm assuming,
that's causing that because somepeople feel it, but I don't I
(19:53):
don't know.
Uh but obviously, um, anythinghappened anytime it could
surprise anyone, you know.
There's probably stuff.
Is there any place in the world?
Oh, you you know a lot aboutthis stuff, but is there any
place in the world where we'renot aware of or possibly could
be activity, you know, buildingup and uh that that could happen
(20:15):
anytime or um what's interestingto think about is that you that
there's volcanic activity deepwithin the ocean.
SPEAKER_00 (20:24):
So, you know, at the at the bottom of the Pacific
Ocean along these convergentplate boundaries, there are
these things that form that arecalled seamounts.
And and when we look at theplate tectonic map, we call this
the Pacific Ring of Fire.
So there's a Pacific Pacificplate that's a convergent plate
boundary.
And the Pacific Ocean is a bigplace, right?
(20:44):
And so along these convergentplate boundaries, there's these
tiny volcanoes that are forming.
And it's estimated that there'sabout 50,000 of these small
volcanoes, um, but they'relargely undiscovered just
because they're so deep, youknow, and there's so many of
them.
Um, there's one that's formingoff of the coast of Oregon.
(21:04):
It's called the Axial Seamount.
Um, it's about 300 miles off thecoast of Oregon.
And because it's proximity init, because it has been recently
active volcanically active, um,it's being monitored.
SPEAKER_04 (21:19):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (21:19):
But yeah, there geologists are having uh, you
know, there's only so muchmonitoring that can be done when
there's so many volcanoes on thebottom of the seafloor.
Exactly.
SPEAKER_02 (21:29):
I was gonna say it's something by well, that one that
happened uh that um destroyed uhthe um the western part of
Indonesia.
Uh was that was caused by avolcano was it out in the ocean
where they caused a tsunami thatcame in and just destroyed,
killed thousands of people.
SPEAKER_00 (21:47):
Um the 2004 uh tsunami event.
Is that what you're referringto?
SPEAKER_02 (21:54):
Yeah, yeah, that's the one, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (21:55):
Yeah, no, that was um that was a major earthquake
shift.
Um oh there's a convergent platebound there boundary there too.
And so that was a result of a amajor earthquake that generated
a tsunami.
SPEAKER_02 (22:09):
Yeah, I know it destroyed a couple of towns on
the west coast of Phuket Tileand got destroyed.
Uh obviously recovered fromthat.
SPEAKER_00 (22:16):
But yeah, five 5,000 people died in Phuket.
But that so that um called itwas called the Boxing Day
tsunami, and that was can stillis considered to be the most
devastating natural disaster inmodern history, and about
300,000 lives were lost.
SPEAKER_02 (22:31):
Yeah, that's amazing, isn't it?
It's horrific to think aboutthat.
SPEAKER_00 (22:35):
Within hours, too.
SPEAKER_02 (22:36):
Within hours, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (22:38):
Yeah, because there was no warning system in the in
the Indian Ocean.
They've since uh rectified that,and there's a lot better
education for one, tsunamieducation, there's evacuation
routes, and there's also um awarning system.
SPEAKER_02 (22:51):
In fact, I I think some African nations got
affected by that.
SPEAKER_00 (22:55):
Yeah, that's right.
SPEAKER_02 (22:56):
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (22:56):
So because tsunami tsunamis move at 500 miles per
hour, um, and they have a hugeum force and velocity.
And again, just because therewas no warning system to tell
people to evacuate, a lot oflives were unnecessarily lost.
SPEAKER_02 (23:12):
Yeah.
I I do scuba diving and uh I wasalways keen to go to these
spectacular sites.
And I went to one area which isuh basically a sunken volcano,
it's called Sipperdan.
SPEAKER_00 (23:24):
Really?
SPEAKER_02 (23:25):
Yeah.
Um it's challenging to get therebecause uh you you basically
have to fly from Kuala Lumpurinto a place called Tawau in
Borneo.
There's about an hour and ahalf's drive.
You have to overnight in SanPony before getting a boat into
that area.
Sipadan is governed uh byMalaysia, so they only allow I
(23:45):
applied for a permit there sixmonths before, but they only
allow so many people on there.
But there's a sunken volcano,and uh not that it's active
anymore, but you can't humanscan't live on the island because
it's it's there for wildlife.
But I tell you something, justdiving in that area, massive
scores of fish.
Unbelievable.
(24:06):
Unbelievable.
Something the volcano there thatjust I don't know, stuff that
fish like this hang out there.
It's amazing.
That's awesome.
Yeah, and when I was in St.
Pawn, I got a text from a buddyof mine, said Malcolm, there's
just been a tsunami warning atSulawesi, which is the adjacent
island.
I said, What the heck?
(24:27):
And I thought that's all I neednow, but it went away overnight,
so I managed to go to Siberdanaand do the diving there.
That's a sunken volcano, so it'sabove the water and it's below,
right?
SPEAKER_04 (24:36):
So that's cool.
SPEAKER_02 (24:38):
Yeah, so still doing that.
And um they were going to uh inalso Bordeaux, Mount Kinnebalu.
Because of the rainforest.
Yeah, I think that's a volcanic,that's a volcano as well, isn't
it?
SPEAKER_00 (24:49):
Yes, it's dormant though, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (24:52):
Yeah, it's dormant.
Okay, so but you know, yeah,it's no people um obviously too,
probably too many people go toEverest to climb it, but in the
Himalayan mountains, you know isthat an active area for
volcanoes or not?
SPEAKER_00 (25:06):
Is it Mount Everest is not volcanic?
SPEAKER_02 (25:09):
No, no, volcanic, it's just mountains, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (25:11):
Yeah, it's just mountains, yeah.
Yep.
SPEAKER_02 (25:13):
Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00 (25:13):
So you have um again back to plate tectonics, you
have a collisional uh boundarybetween um the Eurasian plate
and the Indian Plate, and youhave this uplift.
Um Mount Everest is uhincreasing at elevation at a
rate of about two inches peryear.
So if you hike it last year, youneed to hike it again because
it's it it's still um activelybeing uplifted.
(25:37):
Yeah, but it's not volcanic.
SPEAKER_02 (25:39):
It's not volcanic.
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (25:41):
So you can have earthquakes, you can you can
have earthquakes, but you don'thave necessarily you wouldn't
have a volcanic eruption.
SPEAKER_02 (25:46):
Okay.
Uh not that I ever crossed mymind when I was trekking it
there because I was too busywalking, but uh oh, I think you
mentioned in your profilerecently you went to a place
where I went and I thought I'dnever go there, Samalbad.
SPEAKER_00 (26:01):
Yeah, okay.
You've been there too.
Yeah.
Yeah, I can't remember youthere.
I was um I was there in uh 2022and I was lucky enough to get a
research position um along athree-mast Barking team sailing
ship, and I was with aninterdisciplinary science crew
and some artists.
Um, and each of us had adifferent project.
(26:24):
So I was looking at um theoverall geology of Svalbard, I
was looking at um groundwatercontamination, and I was looking
at um at glacial aspects, kindof like climate change stuff.
And what took me there isbecause I wrote my first book uh
that was published by Wiley in2020, Iceland uh tectonics,
(26:46):
volcanics, and glacier features.
And I knew that I was going tobe up against a second edition,
and I thought that adding somethings about Smallbard would be
a nice um a nice addition to thebook.
SPEAKER_02 (26:56):
Yeah, and I you know, it was one of the things I
wanted to do, because I was upin the region and when I left uh
Stockholm, I flew through Oslo,went up there.
It's basically one flight a daythere, and it's north of Oslo,
and it's the northernmost humansettlement in the world.
unknown (27:11):
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (27:11):
Long UBM, and which is named after an American
miner, I guess.
But uh, but I tell you, I wasthere in September um a couple
of years ago.
This the scenery is fantastic.
SPEAKER_04 (27:23):
Oh, it's stunning.
SPEAKER_02 (27:24):
It's unbelievable.
And uh just for even for my mylodge room there, and I was in
the the the town center, LongUb.
It's just nice to walk aroundthere, you know.
Volcanic as well, maybe?
SPEAKER_00 (27:37):
No, for no no, certainly not volcanic.
It's uh it's uh not on a plateboundary and it's not near a hot
spot.
SPEAKER_02 (27:45):
Okay, yeah, yeah, they got some strange rules,
strange rules there.
I mean, uh obviously it's in thesettlement, long you've been
about 2,000 people there, butthere's also three and a half
thousand polar bears, right?
And that's why it's more if yougo out at settlement, you have
to take a rifle with you by law.
SPEAKER_00 (28:01):
Yeah, we saw quite a few, did you?
SPEAKER_02 (28:04):
Yeah, I I I I did, and uh but um I did walk a fair
bit there, but not at nighttime, obviously.
But I I didn't go extensive.
Um I walked a fair bit.
I was just trying to relaxthere, but you know, as a human
being, we're not allowed to diethere, right?
Right.
And it's weird, and women can'tgive birth there, obviously.
(28:26):
And and cats are forbiddenbecause they they uh they feel
on the birds of prey there, butit's it's just a spectacular
thing.
But the people who live thereare just happy, you know.
SPEAKER_00 (28:37):
Very, yeah.
One of my favorite things isthat you know, everybody that is
in Svalbard, they're there for areason, right?
So whether that's like trekkingor uh really appreciating
nature, like because it's such ajourney to get there.
So you get some really coolfolks that end up at the North
Pole.
SPEAKER_02 (28:55):
Yeah, it's uh I don't know how far it is from
the North Pole, but it's it'sdoable, obviously.
You're that far north, but uhyeah, I I thought it's fantastic
there.
And uh I just remember going toa uh coffee shop there in uh
long year again.
It's called Huskers.
SPEAKER_00 (29:11):
Oh, I went to that, I sure did.
SPEAKER_03 (29:12):
I know you go in and uh yeah, and Husky come to sit
by you, and I the truth behindthat is yeah, they're retired
sled dogs.
They go for seven years and theygo hang out in the cafe and
communicate with us.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (29:29):
It's lovely, so I'd love to go back there again one
day.
I mean, um, you know, you'veyou've got pretty inactive
calibers, you're you'retraveling a lot, right?
SPEAKER_00 (29:39):
I am.
Um so where did where do youeven start with that?
So uh I was a professor in theclassroom, tenure professor for
uh almost 20 20 years.
Um and let's see, like in2019-ish, my husband and I came
up with an idea that we wantedto live full-time in a camper
van.
(30:00):
Um, and so we just kind of putour wheels in motion on how we
were gonna make that happen andhow we were gonna work remote
remotely.
And um, I knew that meant that Iwas gonna have to step away from
tenure.
So that's where my tour companycame into fruition, adventure
geology tours.
Because I I what do I love todo?
I love to teach, I love geology,and I love to travel and I'm
(30:22):
good at it.
I've led so many study abroadtrips, and so that was the
inception of the tour company.
Um, and um my husband was ableto um step away from his
position and and in his work.
Um, and we started building acamper van in 2022, and we
(30:43):
finally finished it, and we umshipped it from Baltimore,
Maryland to Belgium in March of2026.
So just a few months ago.
SPEAKER_02 (30:53):
Yeah, I just waiting for you.
Why didn't you go over that?
SPEAKER_00 (30:55):
Yeah, and so um um, so that's what we're kind of up
to.
So um we came back to Atlantathis month just to get ready for
our tours because we'll leadsome tours to Iceland in in
July.
So we had to get pack and getour the rest of our outdoor
gear, but um yeah, so we'refull-time, we call ourselves
professional travelers, and welive in a uh 22-foot uh sprinter
(31:19):
camper van um with 82 squarefeet.
So you don't have a lot ofthings, but you have exactly
what you need, and um we couldnot be happier.
SPEAKER_02 (31:28):
That's fantastic.
Obviously, you got kitchen uhfacilities there, you can sleep
in there, and and you know, withcan't not that ever crossed my
mind in doing that, but um, butyou just get get in and you
said, well, where should we gonext?
And just drive there.
And uh I mean the the road areain Europe is fairly good anyway,
(31:50):
although you can get if youdidn't want to do that, trains
uh are excellent there anyway.
So uh when you leave Belgium, ifyou uh in your your camper band,
where are you gonna go first?
SPEAKER_00 (32:01):
We already did.
So um we picked it up in Marchof 2026.
SPEAKER_02 (32:05):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (32:05):
So the spring of this last year, um, from
Belgium.
We um uh we had to go back to wewent to Amsterdam.
We I mean we basically went allover.
We traveled about 7,000 miles,15 countries.
Um, and we met a van builder inin Turkey, and so we spent a lot
(32:26):
of time um out of the Singenzone because we only had a
90-day visa, and we reallyunexpectedly enjoyed these
non-Shengan zone countries, soMontenegro, Macedonia, Albania,
like just stunning landscapes,beautiful people, like we never
fet felt any like threat of umnot being safe, and we just
(32:48):
really enjoyed that.
And our van right now is inTurkey.
So we'll um after we do thesetours in Iceland, we'll head
back and and pick it up.
And we've made some beautifulfriends in Turkey, and uh we'll
hit the road again.
SPEAKER_02 (33:02):
Fantastic.
Now, where when you gosomewhere, um the term fly by
the city of Pants on it probablydoesn't apply here, but do you
you plan way ahead to everywhereyou're going, or you said, well,
we're in the band, where shouldwe go now?
SPEAKER_03 (33:15):
Or is it is it like it's spur of the moment thing?
SPEAKER_00 (33:18):
Yeah, so um my husband and I had made like a uh
a calendar of events that wewant to see, like kind of like
festivals.
Yeah, so um we're certainlygonna go to an Oktoberfest in
Germany.
Um before that, we're gonna goto the tomato festival in
Barcelona.
That's how we're gonna be ableto do that, yeah.
We throw tomatoes at each other.
(33:40):
Um, we want to see the tulips inbloom.
Um, we really like musicfestivals, so there's a couple
of muted music festivals on ourradar.
And um, and so you know, kind ofwe have these hard dates, and
then we just kind of, like yousaid, kind of fly by the seas of
our pants.
And really, like the beautifulthing about the van is that
we're not tied to touristdestinations, so we can really
(34:03):
get into some of these likesmall, off-the-beaten path
places and you know, really seehow people live and learn about
the culture.
SPEAKER_02 (34:11):
Yeah, that's a very different angle with them.
Exactly.
SPEAKER_00 (34:14):
Yeah, very different perspective.
And people are as interested inus as we are in them, um, having
the van.
So um it's very much an easylike conversation piece.
SPEAKER_02 (34:25):
Yeah, uh that's that's absolutely excellent.
Now, obviously, you've got tofill it with petrol gas and
along the way.
So, how many hours would youdrive a day typically before you
to pull over them?
SPEAKER_00 (34:36):
Um kind of depends on where we're at and where
we're headed.
SPEAKER_02 (34:41):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (34:41):
So for sure, probably not more than um an
eight-hour, um an eight-hourtrek.
SPEAKER_02 (34:48):
Yeah, that yeah, that's substantial.
I wonder, you know, I I'm notused to driving long distances
uh for for whatever reason.
Um because I'm born and raisedin England, or you do have can't
drive long distances there, butyou do get stuck in traffic,
right?
So anyway, it's uh so I don't dothat, but just just fly or
whatever or get a tr a train,maybe.
But at least you're doing thatand and you're on a nice
(35:10):
vehicle, you just pull out.
Oh, let's pull over here and getsome sleep, and that's it.
That's right.
And you've got you pick up foodanywhere in your cooking
facilities, so it's all right.
SPEAKER_00 (35:18):
Yeah, the van's very the van's very comfortable.
So we have um a full shower withhot water, um, and uh uh a
commode, and we have a sink, andwe have a you know, hot pot, we
have a grill and heated floors.
Like if you want to check outour journeys, we have a website,
it's called Cats Be Cats,K-A-T-S-B-E-K-A-T-S.com.
And that explains a little bitmore of our van build and the
(35:41):
struggles we had with that.
Um, and then that's ourInstagram handle too.
SPEAKER_02 (35:45):
Okay.
I think another place, if if Ihad that vehicle and I I wanted
to do it, I'd probably head upinto the fields of Norway.
Oh, we've got a spectacularscenery of the sure.
SPEAKER_00 (35:57):
Like that's uh definitely on our radar.
And we said that like we'regonna travel for two years, but
I think that like we love it somuch.
My husband also has a spirit ofadventure, and so I imagine this
is gonna morph into somethingmuch longer than two years.
SPEAKER_02 (36:12):
Well, I tell you what, uh you know, you've got to
do it while you can, right?
Yeah, there'll come a time, andalong the way, you got
photographs and you pick upsouvenirs and uh videos and all
that, keep scrapbooks, ofcourse, and uh yeah, it's just a
great thing to do.
So uh you're just gonna keep ondoing what you're doing today,
right?
SPEAKER_00 (36:32):
I think so.
SPEAKER_02 (36:33):
And what's it like coming back?
I'm looking at the yourbackground there.
Obviously, you're in Atlanta,it's built up, and uh yeah,
obviously Atlanta's a bitchaotic compared to some of the
places you've been to, right?
SPEAKER_00 (36:43):
That's true, yeah.
Yeah, I can tell you that um thereally the only thing that I
missed um being being gone onthe road is the gym.
Um, but I have a set of weightsin in the van so I can like you
know pull over, do my yoga, getmy exercise in, um, as well as
my husband.
And um, yeah, being back is umyeah, it's uh it's a little bit
(37:05):
shocking, right?
Um, because of you haveamenities and unlimited water
and some so many different foodoptions.
Um, but it really makes youappreciate home being gone and
yeah, please you're back for awhile, then you probably get
itchy feet.
SPEAKER_02 (37:22):
That's why you go out of town again, right?
Because you want to see more ofthe world.
Okay.
Now I've got your website uphere.
It's Volcanoes What EveryoneNeedsToknow.com.
That's quite a long name for awebsite, right?
It is the name of the book.
Yeah, but uh but anyways, it'sit's it's I need to look at this
a bit more, but it's got yourbiography in in there.
But you're also known as Dr.
(37:43):
J, is that right?
Dr.
Joe.
Dr.
Joe, okay, yeah.
That's in my students.
And it's got about the bookthere and a press and obviously
uh uh some pictures there.
So uh what what what's the otherwebsite?
Did you say you got thevolcanoes, what anyone needs to
know.com.
What was the other website youmentioned?
SPEAKER_00 (38:02):
Um gosh, there's so many.
So we have adventure geologytours.
Okay, that's a tour company.
Um, geology of Iceland will takeyou to my first book that I
wrote.
It's uh the advanced geologicalconcepts of Iceland.
And then our van website is CatsBe Cats with a K,
K-A-T-S-B-E-K-A-T-S.
SPEAKER_02 (38:23):
Oh, interesting.
SPEAKER_00 (38:24):
And that's also our Instagram handle.
SPEAKER_02 (38:26):
Okay.
What what is that?
The last one there, Cats, uh,what about?
Is that just travel?
SPEAKER_00 (38:33):
Yeah, that's that's our travel website.
And we call ourselves Cats BeCats because one time we were in
Kat Man Doo on, and it was arandom Tuesday, and we were
drinking beer, me and myhusband, and it was pretty
quiet.
And all of a sudden, these Kiwiscome in, and they were just out
to have a great time and stirthings up.
(38:55):
And uh we we love them, and theykept saying, Cats be cats, mate,
cats be cats, you're a cat,we're a cat, and just kind of
like as a term of like you're anexpat, we're an expat, we're
traveling, let's get to knoweach other.
So we always we always thoughtthat was kind of fun.
SPEAKER_02 (39:11):
Katmandu, most chaotic city on the planet.
I think.
SPEAKER_00 (39:14):
This is, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (39:16):
And that's why I went, I spent three days before
before I ventured up into themountains uh trekking and and
the home of rock and roll,right?
SPEAKER_00 (39:23):
Like I we were really surprised at all the rock
and roll bars there.
SPEAKER_02 (39:27):
Yeah, exactly.
Amazing.
Yeah, it's uh unbelievablescenery in this is is lovely.
I uh I know, but but people wholive there, they love the chaos,
I guess.
Yeah, I guess so.
Actually, believe it or not,from where I started, I can't
remember the name of the hotel,but I don't know why I remember
this more than the name of thehotel.
But right across the street fromwhere I was staying, there was
an Irish pub, right?
SPEAKER_00 (39:48):
Well, there's an Irish pub in every town, right?
SPEAKER_02 (39:51):
That's wherever I go to, I Google British and Irish
pubs near me.
And that's why it always comesup.
The only place I went to thatthey didn't was Lhasa Tibet, but
they uh who knows, but uh butyeah, everywhere I know I did
type in British pubs near me andit comes up with something.
It's amazing.
SPEAKER_00 (40:11):
Do they always have fish and chips?
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (40:15):
Fish and chips or finch and chips, yeah.
There you go.
Yeah, fish and chips and uh bigfair curry as well.
But yeah, I know.
So we we gotta keep doing it.
So anyway, your websites are theplace if someone wants to uh you
have a trap tour company, so youinvite people or you arrange
tours for people, do you, or youinvite them to come along with
you?
How's that work?
SPEAKER_00 (40:35):
Yeah, we we arrange tours.
Um, so we go to Iceland uh everyyear, and then we add another
tour, so different, differentlocations.
So um we go to Iceland, theArctic Circle, uh Costa Rica, uh
Patagonia, and we're addingItaly in 2028.
SPEAKER_02 (40:53):
Okay, well, fantastic.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (40:56):
Ever evolving.
SPEAKER_02 (40:57):
Yeah, I've I've got a I've got a I've been to
Argentina a couple of times, butI've never gone the real south,
you know, to the Antarctic.
That's on my to-do list.
As as of the place you'llmention earlier, right at the
beginning, is the Amazon jungle,right?
I want to go there, so flying toManaus and then go from there.
So that's that's what I'mthinking about also.
SPEAKER_00 (41:16):
And uh Manaus is a beautiful, beautiful town, and
it's a great launch to get ariver boat.
SPEAKER_02 (41:21):
Yep, exactly.
So we gotta keep on doing it,but uh so people know how to get
hold of you, and that's great.
So um, do you have any otherthings you'd like to say to the
people out there?
SPEAKER_00 (41:33):
You know, um, the world's a great place and a big
place.
And I think that you know, themost important thing that I
always take away is that umthere are many more great and
wonderful people in the worldthan there are negative people.
And you experience that when youtravel.
And so it's you know, reallyopen going into travel with like
(41:56):
open eyes and open perspectives,and really like willing to learn
and understand is um you knowkind of like the spice of life.
And I think like once you dothat, you realize like how
common we all are.
Like people really just want thesame things, right?
You just want food and shelterand security and community, and
um, and I think that it's reallyhumbling to see that and
(42:19):
understand that.
SPEAKER_02 (42:20):
Yeah, it's very important today, especially to
uh we're all human beings atheart.
I've hung out with nomads ofMongolia, the mountain tribes in
Northern Thailand, and thedesert nomads in Namibia.
It's surprising because at theend of the day, I have the
mountain tribes in theHimalayas.
I learned how they're they live,and at the end of the day, they
live that way because they wantto.
(42:42):
Right.
And that's that's what we'reabout.
And they're happy, it'sclose-knit communities.
It's uh it's really eye-opening,really.
And that's that's what we do,right?
That's right.
Well, Tammy, or Dr.
Joe, it's been great to have youhere.
And um, yeah, um, I'm gonna lookmore on on your website and uh
find out a bit more about yourtravels and uh probably give me
(43:06):
ideas.
I gotta go there now.
That's that's my problem.
This book at list thing isgetting longer, not shorter, you
know.
SPEAKER_04 (43:12):
That's right.
Yes, it does.
SPEAKER_02 (43:14):
It is anyway.
Well, best wishes to you ontravels in the future.
SPEAKER_00 (43:18):
And uh we'll we'll check in again later.
SPEAKER_02 (43:22):
You got it.
Well, keep in touch and uh youknow stay safe.
You too.
Enjoy Lantern while you can, allright?
You bet.
Bye-bye.
SPEAKER_01 (43:31):
That's it for this episode of the Travel Addict
Podcast, where we chase sunsets,flirt with danger, and
occasionally make questionablechoices in foreign lands.
Until next time, may yourflights be on time.
And your travel stories justscandalous enough to leave a few
details out.
Check out Malcolm's websites atmalcolmteesdale.com and
(43:53):
travelingenglishman.com.
Save travels and enjoy life,everyone.
Welcome to the Travel Addict Podcast.
(00:02):
Your host and fellow traveladdict, Malcolm Teesdale, is
here to take you into the heartof the world's most fascinating
destinations.
He talks with passionateglobetrotters and fearless
explorers who share their wildjourneys and cultural insights
from around the world.
Or sometimes he just chats byhimself, describing enriching
travel experiences.
(00:22):
So buckle up and let's hit theroad, because the world is
calling and we're answering.
SPEAKER_02 (00:27):
Hello everybody, Malcolm Teesdale here, the
travel addict.
And uh we're going to talkabout, I would say, an explosive
subject today.
And uh all right, you're gonnarot with laughter, I'm sure.
But um on the line with me is uma lady who travels quite a bit,
is Dr.
SPEAKER_03 (00:48):
Tammy Giovanelli?
Did I pronounce that?
SPEAKER_00 (00:52):
Good job, that's right.
SPEAKER_03 (00:54):
That's not bad for a first attempt.
And Dr.
SPEAKER_02 (00:57):
Tammy is currently in Georgia, uh, but she um
professor of geology.
That's why we've got thissubject today we're going to
talk about.
And it intrigued me because I'vebeen to a few places myself
where there's been volcanoes,not erupting, of course.
And uh you got your PhD whatfrom Kent University?
SPEAKER_00 (01:12):
Kent State University, yep.
SPEAKER_02 (01:14):
Kent State University.
Well, great stuff.
And uh that's what you do today.
You're a geologist and you goall over.
SPEAKER_00 (01:21):
Yeah, yeah.
I'm a I'm a Jane of a lot ofdifferent trades.
Um, so my PhD was looking attsunamis in the state of
Washington and makingcomparisons to Japan.
So I had a collaborativeposition where I worked with the
University of Tokyo, and mymaster's degree was from
University of Nebraska, Go BigRed.
And I studied groundwater andsurface water interactions.
(01:44):
And then when I finished my PhD,I went to Barrie College in
Rome, Georgia.
And um, I was a professor in theclassroom for 17 years, and um,
there my research focused on umglobal water quality.
And so I made comparisonsbetween developed, undeveloped,
and developing countries, and Ifocused on major river systems,
(02:06):
including the Amazon, the Nile,um, the Ganges, and a variety of
other places in Europe.
So my research took me abroadevery summer.
And um, in addition to mypersonal research on water
quality, I would also takestudents abroad.
So we had this fantastic studyabroad program where I was
(02:26):
organizing trips and I wouldtake students to beautiful
places to learn geology.
And then the other thing um thatI kind of fell into is um is
writing books.
And so um this past uh thiswell, I guess two years ago now
I resigned from the classroomand I did that so I could focus
(02:47):
on being a full-time sciencewriter.
SPEAKER_02 (02:49):
Excellent.
Excellent.
You mentioned something there,Japan.
I'll be there next month.
Oh, beautiful.
That's a great time to go.
I'm just uh fly, I was gonna flyinto Seoul Korea first and fly
over to Tokyo, but I got aflight straight into Hanida
Airport there in Tokyo.
So uh I'll be there for about aweek and a half.
So it's it's it's it's I'mlooking forward to that.
(03:10):
Um I'm actually speaking on acruise ship that's actually uh
uh sailed all the way aroundJapan.
SPEAKER_00 (03:16):
Oh, perfect.
SPEAKER_02 (03:17):
So I see Mount Fuji.
Um and uh obviously uh Kyoto.
It's is Mount Fuji volcanic, bythe way, just curious.
SPEAKER_00 (03:25):
Yeah, yep, it's still volcanically active, and
it's uh one of the mostimpressionable volcanoes in in
what I study.
So that was a very that was avery first, and I write about
this in the preface of my my newbook that's coming out this
month.
Um, but Mount Fuji, when Ivisited, was the very first
volcano that I hiked.
(03:46):
Um, and it was really importantfor me to understand
volcanology.
SPEAKER_02 (03:51):
Wow.
Well, if it erupts next month,it's my fault, right?
Yeah, yeah, okay.
Well, great.
What actually um caused you to,in the first place, to sort of
get interested in volcanoes orthis subject?
SPEAKER_00 (04:07):
Yeah.
Um so I again like my backgroundis pretty diverse as a as a
geologist, and I've always beenintrigued by volcanoes, and it
really started out as like ahobby.
Like I mentioned, Mount Fuji,and I was um uh in my my PhD
program when I ended up at theUniversity of Tokyo, and you
know, you can take thoseshinkens and those bullet trains
(04:29):
anywhere.
And so one of the first places II went was Mount Fuji.
And um, and at Mount Fuji, it isa volcano that's really
important to the culture, and soit's expected that you've hike
Mount Fuji at least one time inyour in your lifetime, and so
it's very much like a spiritualpilgrimage, and I kind of fell
(04:50):
into that.
And um hiking Mount Fuji, one ofthe traditional things to do is
you hike it at nighttime.
So you get to the you get to thebase camp at dark and then you
hike because the idea is thatyou're gonna get to the summit
by the time that the sun isrising.
So because it's a pilgrimage,it's it's very quiet, it's very
peaceful.
You're walking two by two andyou're um you're bouldering up
(05:14):
the size of this fantasticvolcano.
And I remember um being on thebullet train and I was reading
the lonely planet.
And in the lonely planet, itsaid, This hike is so easy, your
grandmother can do it.
And while there are manygrandmothers like on the flanks
of this volcano this night, itwas not particularly easy.
And so I really like embracedthat challenge.
(05:35):
And um me, as with others, wegot to the summit as the sun was
rising, and it was just um abeautiful, beautiful thing to be
able to see.
And and one of those things uhabout nature, another thing that
I remember about hiking MountFuji is it was like terribly
cold and rainy at base camp.
And then once we got above thecloud deck, the sky was this uh
(05:57):
beautiful turquoise green, therewas a crescent moon, and there
was a meteor shower.
Wow.
Um, so that is really whathooked me for the first time in
loving volcanoes as a hobby, asuh as for exercise and for the
connection to the environment.
And then as a geologist, I juststarted to study deeper and
(06:18):
deeper.
And when I went to um plan myfirst study abroad for students
in Iceland, Iceland, there's 33active volcanoes.
So pretty much everywhere youlook in the landscape is some
type of volcano or volcanicfeature, and that just drew me
in even deeper.
SPEAKER_02 (06:34):
That's interesting.
Well, I'll I'll be in Iceland inSeptember.
So not long, it's but at leastat least uh that I like that
place uh uh as well, but uh somany places I like that's that's
just a problem.
But you know, Mount Mount Fujiis classed as sacred mountain,
right?
So there's there's three of themin Japan, Haku and Tatao, I
think.
Anyway, but Mount Fuji issupposed to be sort of sacred,
(06:56):
so it's important to the peoplethere.
But you said you went at night.
Do you have a flashlight withyou?
SPEAKER_00 (07:01):
Yeah, we had had headlamps, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (07:03):
Yeah, I just wonder what the the hazards were.
It must be pretty smoothwalking, then like you're not
close to a a drop-off, are you?
Or is it is it safe?
SPEAKER_00 (07:13):
No, but it's uh it's definitely you know, you're
bouldering over, you know,massive lava fields and stuff
like that.
It's uh not Disneyland or pavedtrail or anything like that.
It's it takes quite a bit ofeffort to be able to get to the
summit.
SPEAKER_03 (07:25):
Yeah, how long how many hours did it take you,
Sammy?
About six hours?
SPEAKER_00 (07:28):
At least uh everybody eight hours.
SPEAKER_02 (07:31):
Oh, really?
So um it wasn't a case of youstop halfway in camp, you just
did the whole thing in one shot,did it?
SPEAKER_00 (07:37):
Yeah, you do the whole you do the whole thing at
night to get to the summit atsunrise, and then on the way
down, it's a little bit moreleisurely and jovial, and people
are talking and yeah, there yougo, but you're focused on
getting getting obviously tosomewhere.
SPEAKER_02 (07:49):
What's about 12,000 feet or something, is it?
SPEAKER_00 (07:51):
That's right.
SPEAKER_02 (07:52):
Yeah, okay, got it.
SPEAKER_00 (07:53):
Yeah, closer, but closer to 13, I think, but yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (07:56):
Yeah, I I won't have time to to do that myself, but
uh I'll just I'll be visitingthat area, so hopefully I'll
have a chance to sort of walkaround the base area.
But uh yeah, you're the secondperson I know who's actually
done Mount Fuji, so that's acongratulations.
Now something you mentioned inyour profile, geotourism is sort
of a big thing these days,right?
SPEAKER_00 (08:17):
Yeah.
Well, um, I think that at leastfor at least for me as a as a
geologist and um in teaching foralmost two decades, what I
realize is that if people peoplecan look at uh a volcano, I
think anybody can and appreciateit for its natural beauty.
(08:38):
But when you truly understandthe earth processes and how it's
formed and how it continues tochange in the landscape, I think
it makes it just that much moremagnificent and interesting.
And I think that people arelooking to connect with the
environment in different ways.
And so having thatunderstanding, it just
(09:00):
exemplifies the natural beauty.
SPEAKER_02 (09:02):
Yeah, I think it's very important.
Uh we it's we we have abeautiful world out there, and
we have to uh travel there andexplore it and learn how it
works, right?
Um, so it's it's important tounderstand how volcanoes work uh
for a little livelihood, I get,I guess, but it appreciates
everything.
I mean, there's still activevolcanoes on the planet, so you
never know what's going tohappen at any time, right?
(09:24):
So, you know, we just had thatearthquake in Venezuela, which
is horrific.
But you know, with thevolcanoes, I mean, um, then you
have potential tsunamis and allthat.
SPEAKER_00 (09:33):
Um there's 50, 40 to 50 active volcanoes on the
planet annually.
SPEAKER_02 (09:40):
So how often how often do they blow that top
typically?
SPEAKER_00 (09:45):
Uh uh different volcanoes have different
recurrence intervals and there'sdifferent types of uh of
eruptions, so that's uh a prettybroad question to to answer.
SPEAKER_02 (09:55):
Okay, I just wondered because I I went to uh
a place uh towards the end oflast year, uh, and I never
thought I'd go there, but I did,and it's got some um some huge
significance about it, isMontserrat.
SPEAKER_04 (10:09):
Oh, sure.
SPEAKER_02 (10:10):
Yeah, and of course that that uh volcano blew its
top and quite a few people died,but it's also uh where uh George
Martin built the recordingstudios there.
So a lot of famous musicalalbums were were made there uh
by by the Rolling Stones by DioStraits, and that's why they had
when after that went off,actually in recent history, um
(10:31):
then uh they had a tributeconcert at Rawl Out Hall London
to commemorate that.
But that, you know, when I wentthere, I was aiming to walk
around um that area, butMontserrat, I mean, it is it
when that last time it blew itstop, um the capital is Plymouth,
and it's the only capital cityin the world with zero
(10:52):
population.
SPEAKER_00 (10:53):
Is that right?
SPEAKER_02 (10:54):
Yeah, and uh it's walking around there, and uh you
know you could see the aftermathof when it happened many, many
years ago, but it'sunbelievable, really, just you
know, walking around there.
Hopefully that never happensagain, but uh anyway.
Um, but that's good.
So understanding the science ofvolcano is important, and um
(11:15):
it's it's I mean, is it nowpossible?
I think it is, to detect when avolcano is going to go off.
SPEAKER_00 (11:23):
So instrumentation has really helped with that.
Um, and there's a variety ofdifferent like types of
techniques.
So, like as an example, um,Iceland, which is kind of like
my home away from home, has beenvolcanically active really since
about 2020, about 2020, right,right, right about the time of
(11:43):
COVID or right right near after.
Um, and there's different typesof eruptions.
So you have explosive eruptionsor non-explosive eruptions, and
that has to do with the type ofmagma.
But really, with any type ofvolcano, you're looking at the
magma as it's coming to thesurface.
And so as that happens, the heatcloser to the surface is going
(12:03):
to increase.
And so you can measure that.
You can also measure how theground begins to swell or
inflate because that magma isoccupying new space underground.
And then you can look for likechanges in um in groundwater
temperature, you can look forlike changes in uh springs and
um their water chemistry.
(12:25):
And then what's really textbookis that usually as a precursor
before an eruption, you'll getwhat we call earthquake swarms.
And these aren't like bigearthquakes, they're like low
magnitude, low energyearthquakes, magnitude two,
three, but you can have like10,000 of these small
earthquakes before there's aneruption.
So we can look and monitor forthose um subtle distances, um,
(12:49):
subtle changes in theenvironment to give us clues as
to when a volcano might erupt.
Um, and what's fun is um now atMontetna, they are using these
robotic dogs.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (13:01):
Oh, really?
SPEAKER_00 (13:02):
Yeah, I don't know if you got to see them, but
they're they uh look like dogsand they're robots, and they um
are sent like ahead of like aresearch crew and they're
smelling for um for sulfur andfor um carbon monoxide and and
releases of carbon dioxide thatcould be dangerous to like
research teams.
Um and and so that's kind of a anew and fun technology that's
(13:24):
being implemented.
SPEAKER_02 (13:26):
Well, that's fantastic.
They they're able to do that,obviously.
Robots um that's amazing.
Um, but I think you suggestedthat if there's any sort of
earthquake um activity, it couldbe the sign of a nearby volcano.
Is that that what you suggest?
SPEAKER_00 (13:40):
Yeah, but but um but a lot of earthquakes.
So we're talking like more than10,000 low-level earthquakes
will could be recorded beforethere is an eruption.
Okay.
And that's again because themagma's uh approaching the
surface and it's occupyingspace.
And so the rock below the crustis starting to crack.
And as it's cracking, it'sgiving off energy.
SPEAKER_02 (14:01):
Okay.
Yeah, I just want becausevolcanoes when they go off,
obviously it affects um theweather, but it affects the
climate in long term, doesn'tit?
SPEAKER_00 (14:09):
It can, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (14:10):
Yeah, it can.
In in what way does it do that?
SPEAKER_00 (14:14):
Well, you can um you can either have a situation
where you have warming or youcan have a situation where you
go into a cooling phase.
Um, and it depends on the typeof gases then and the amount of
gases that are uh that areactually released into the into
the atmosphere.
SPEAKER_02 (14:31):
Oh, I just wondered, well, that's interesting.
And you may know this already.
I was in the the the uh thishappened.
I went to the island of St.
Lucia, beautiful island, acouple of years ago, and they
say that's the uh only countryin the world with a drive-in
volcano.
That could be true.
So I thought I've got to dothis.
(14:51):
I wasn't staying in therainforest, and we drove into
the volcano.
It was it was it was bubbling,and there was natural hot baths
there, and just got covered inmud and all that.
So I look like a still hole onmy findings, but but it was a
fabulous thing, you know.
It's just a danger it works,yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (15:09):
Yeah, I'm sure there was like the fountain of youth,
they're covered in that volcanicmud, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (15:14):
Volcanic.
So apparently it's um it's goodfor you, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00 (15:19):
Oh, that's what they like to say.
SPEAKER_02 (15:21):
Because I after that, my wife didn't come with
me at the time, so I went bymyself and I got back.
I told her it was apparentlyhealthy.
SPEAKER_03 (15:28):
She said, Send that to me.
SPEAKER_02 (15:29):
Well, how much younger do you feel then?
I said, about two weeks.
I don't know what it's saying,but um, but anyway, it's it's uh
a great experience there.
So you still do it today.
And obviously, you know, youmentioned Iceland.
Um there's nothing close toReykjavik, is there?
Are that is the most of thevolcanic activity in the middle
(15:51):
or close to the northern coast?
SPEAKER_00 (15:54):
Um so when we look at a map of Iceland, it's um
what's interesting about Icelandis that there's um two different
uh geological processes that aregoing to dictate the volcanic
activity.
So you have a hot spot, likewhite, but then you also have a
divergent plate boundary whereyou have these um two plates
(16:14):
that are pulling or spreadingapart.
So the North American plate ispulling away from the Eurasian
plate at a rate of about um twoinches per year.
So about 13 miles over thecourse of a million years.
So where you have this umspreading that's pulling apart,
that's where you can see theoutline of these volcanoes.
(16:36):
And so there's 33 activevolcanoes in in Iceland.
SPEAKER_02 (16:40):
That's amazing.
SPEAKER_00 (16:41):
Um Iceland's about the size of Virginia, so really
like anywhere you look in thelandscape, there's really some
type of volcanic volcanicactivity.
SPEAKER_02 (16:50):
Yeah, it's pretty stable though.
I can't when was the last timesomething went off in Iceland?
SPEAKER_00 (16:54):
Well, last year.
But there um Oh really?
Yeah, so um on the RainesePeninsula, so you have uh
Reykjavik.
Um, and if you fly into Iceland,you usually fly into Keflovik
International Airport.
So if you you're on the you'reon the Rainese Peninsula, and
that's where the volcanicactivity has been occurring
really since about 2020.
(17:15):
So um pretty much every summerthat I've been there since,
there's been some type ofvolcanic eruption.
But these are called fissureeruptions.
And so again, with a divergentplate boundary, you have these
um the crust that's being pulledapart, and with that spreading,
you have a conduit for magma tomore easily come to the earth's
surface.
So there's um they're calledfissure eruptions.
(17:37):
And so on Iceland, we've um seenevidence of this for the past
you know four years.
SPEAKER_02 (17:44):
Do the people who do the people who live there, and
it's a friendly place, it'sactually classic the safest
country in the world now, but umbut I'm just saying, do the
people that worry about the bigone coming?
SPEAKER_00 (17:55):
Well, um, they are certainly disaster prepared.
Like I have many friends thatlive there now, because they've
been going there for twodecades.
Everybody is um aware of theirnatural surroundings, they're
disaster prepared, but theydon't, they're not necessarily
afraid.
Um, and kind of like we have theUnited States Geological Survey,
(18:16):
they have what's called theIceland Meteorological Office,
and they do all the monitoringon these active volcanoes.
So the geologists there have areally keen sense of what's
happening, and they're reallygood at monitoring, and they're
really good at um at evacuationand giving warnings and time for
people to get out.
SPEAKER_04 (18:36):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (18:36):
And people heed those warnings too.
I think yeah, yeah, I thinkthat's important that the people
um are aware of the consequencesof volcanic activity and
understand that situation theyneed to leave.
SPEAKER_02 (18:50):
Yeah, exactly.
Um where was I?
Um yeah, I was sailing throughthe Mediterranean, and one of
the the the places we weresupposed to go to was Santorini,
but they couldn't go therebecause there was seismic
activity detected.
So that's one we didn't justdidn't go there, which was a
shame, really.
But then it went away.
A lot of people did evacuate theisland, but most people are
(19:11):
diehards just stayed there, youknow.
Right.
So, but I don't think anythinghappened then nothing serious
happened at the end of the dayanyway.
SPEAKER_00 (19:18):
So yeah, I think that's the the big difference in
the Icelandic culture is thatthey have a keen understanding
of the you know volcanics on theisland and really um appreciate
the geologists that you know aremonitoring the situations.
SPEAKER_02 (19:33):
Yeah.
What's the nearest one?
I mean, um you live where Ilive, there's nothing there.
But you know, even even in theair, it fairly they said, Oh,
there's been an earthquake hereclose by, but it's very, very
low, right?
But that's something going onunderground, I'm assuming,
that's causing that because somepeople feel it, but I don't I
(19:53):
don't know.
Uh but obviously, um, anythinghappened anytime it could
surprise anyone, you know.
There's probably stuff.
Is there any place in the world?
Oh, you you know a lot aboutthis stuff, but is there any
place in the world where we'renot aware of or possibly could
be activity, you know, buildingup and uh that that could happen
(20:15):
anytime or um what's interestingto think about is that you that
there's volcanic activity deepwithin the ocean.
SPEAKER_00 (20:24):
So, you know, at the at the bottom of the Pacific
Ocean along these convergentplate boundaries, there are
these things that form that arecalled seamounts.
And and when we look at theplate tectonic map, we call this
the Pacific Ring of Fire.
So there's a Pacific Pacificplate that's a convergent plate
boundary.
And the Pacific Ocean is a bigplace, right?
(20:44):
And so along these convergentplate boundaries, there's these
tiny volcanoes that are forming.
And it's estimated that there'sabout 50,000 of these small
volcanoes, um, but they'relargely undiscovered just
because they're so deep, youknow, and there's so many of
them.
Um, there's one that's formingoff of the coast of Oregon.
(21:04):
It's called the Axial Seamount.
Um, it's about 300 miles off thecoast of Oregon.
And because it's proximity init, because it has been recently
active volcanically active, um,it's being monitored.
SPEAKER_04 (21:19):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (21:19):
But yeah, there geologists are having uh, you
know, there's only so muchmonitoring that can be done when
there's so many volcanoes on thebottom of the seafloor.
Exactly.
SPEAKER_02 (21:29):
I was gonna say it's something by well, that one that
happened uh that um destroyed uhthe um the western part of
Indonesia.
Uh was that was caused by avolcano was it out in the ocean
where they caused a tsunami thatcame in and just destroyed,
killed thousands of people.
SPEAKER_00 (21:47):
Um the 2004 uh tsunami event.
Is that what you're referringto?
SPEAKER_02 (21:54):
Yeah, yeah, that's the one, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (21:55):
Yeah, no, that was um that was a major earthquake
shift.
Um oh there's a convergent platebound there boundary there too.
And so that was a result of a amajor earthquake that generated
a tsunami.
SPEAKER_02 (22:09):
Yeah, I know it destroyed a couple of towns on
the west coast of Phuket Tileand got destroyed.
Uh obviously recovered fromthat.
SPEAKER_00 (22:16):
But yeah, five 5,000 people died in Phuket.
But that so that um called itwas called the Boxing Day
tsunami, and that was can stillis considered to be the most
devastating natural disaster inmodern history, and about
300,000 lives were lost.
SPEAKER_02 (22:31):
Yeah, that's amazing, isn't it?
It's horrific to think aboutthat.
SPEAKER_00 (22:35):
Within hours, too.
SPEAKER_02 (22:36):
Within hours, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (22:38):
Yeah, because there was no warning system in the in
the Indian Ocean.
They've since uh rectified that,and there's a lot better
education for one, tsunamieducation, there's evacuation
routes, and there's also um awarning system.
SPEAKER_02 (22:51):
In fact, I I think some African nations got
affected by that.
SPEAKER_00 (22:55):
Yeah, that's right.
SPEAKER_02 (22:56):
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (22:56):
So because tsunami tsunamis move at 500 miles per
hour, um, and they have a hugeum force and velocity.
And again, just because therewas no warning system to tell
people to evacuate, a lot oflives were unnecessarily lost.
SPEAKER_02 (23:12):
Yeah.
I I do scuba diving and uh I wasalways keen to go to these
spectacular sites.
And I went to one area which isuh basically a sunken volcano,
it's called Sipperdan.
SPEAKER_00 (23:24):
Really?
SPEAKER_02 (23:25):
Yeah.
Um it's challenging to get therebecause uh you you basically
have to fly from Kuala Lumpurinto a place called Tawau in
Borneo.
There's about an hour and ahalf's drive.
You have to overnight in SanPony before getting a boat into
that area.
Sipadan is governed uh byMalaysia, so they only allow I
(23:45):
applied for a permit there sixmonths before, but they only
allow so many people on there.
But there's a sunken volcano,and uh not that it's active
anymore, but you can't humanscan't live on the island because
it's it's there for wildlife.
But I tell you something, justdiving in that area, massive
scores of fish.
Unbelievable.
(24:06):
Unbelievable.
Something the volcano there thatjust I don't know, stuff that
fish like this hang out there.
It's amazing.
That's awesome.
Yeah, and when I was in St.
Pawn, I got a text from a buddyof mine, said Malcolm, there's
just been a tsunami warning atSulawesi, which is the adjacent
island.
I said, What the heck?
(24:27):
And I thought that's all I neednow, but it went away overnight,
so I managed to go to Siberdanaand do the diving there.
That's a sunken volcano, so it'sabove the water and it's below,
right?
SPEAKER_04 (24:36):
So that's cool.
SPEAKER_02 (24:38):
Yeah, so still doing that.
And um they were going to uh inalso Bordeaux, Mount Kinnebalu.
Because of the rainforest.
Yeah, I think that's a volcanic,that's a volcano as well, isn't
it?
SPEAKER_00 (24:49):
Yes, it's dormant though, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (24:52):
Yeah, it's dormant.
Okay, so but you know, yeah,it's no people um obviously too,
probably too many people go toEverest to climb it, but in the
Himalayan mountains, you know isthat an active area for
volcanoes or not?
SPEAKER_00 (25:06):
Is it Mount Everest is not volcanic?
SPEAKER_02 (25:09):
No, no, volcanic, it's just mountains, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (25:11):
Yeah, it's just mountains, yeah.
Yep.
SPEAKER_02 (25:13):
Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00 (25:13):
So you have um again back to plate tectonics, you
have a collisional uh boundarybetween um the Eurasian plate
and the Indian Plate, and youhave this uplift.
Um Mount Everest is uhincreasing at elevation at a
rate of about two inches peryear.
So if you hike it last year, youneed to hike it again because
it's it it's still um activelybeing uplifted.
(25:37):
Yeah, but it's not volcanic.
SPEAKER_02 (25:39):
It's not volcanic.
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (25:41):
So you can have earthquakes, you can you can
have earthquakes, but you don'thave necessarily you wouldn't
have a volcanic eruption.
SPEAKER_02 (25:46):
Okay.
Uh not that I ever crossed mymind when I was trekking it
there because I was too busywalking, but uh oh, I think you
mentioned in your profilerecently you went to a place
where I went and I thought I'dnever go there, Samalbad.
SPEAKER_00 (26:01):
Yeah, okay.
You've been there too.
Yeah.
Yeah, I can't remember youthere.
I was um I was there in uh 2022and I was lucky enough to get a
research position um along athree-mast Barking team sailing
ship, and I was with aninterdisciplinary science crew
and some artists.
Um, and each of us had adifferent project.
(26:24):
So I was looking at um theoverall geology of Svalbard, I
was looking at um groundwatercontamination, and I was looking
at um at glacial aspects, kindof like climate change stuff.
And what took me there isbecause I wrote my first book uh
that was published by Wiley in2020, Iceland uh tectonics,
(26:46):
volcanics, and glacier features.
And I knew that I was going tobe up against a second edition,
and I thought that adding somethings about Smallbard would be
a nice um a nice addition to thebook.
SPEAKER_02 (26:56):
Yeah, and I you know, it was one of the things I
wanted to do, because I was upin the region and when I left uh
Stockholm, I flew through Oslo,went up there.
It's basically one flight a daythere, and it's north of Oslo,
and it's the northernmost humansettlement in the world.
unknown (27:11):
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (27:11):
Long UBM, and which is named after an American
miner, I guess.
But uh, but I tell you, I wasthere in September um a couple
of years ago.
This the scenery is fantastic.
SPEAKER_04 (27:23):
Oh, it's stunning.
SPEAKER_02 (27:24):
It's unbelievable.
And uh just for even for my mylodge room there, and I was in
the the the town center, LongUb.
It's just nice to walk aroundthere, you know.
Volcanic as well, maybe?
SPEAKER_00 (27:37):
No, for no no, certainly not volcanic.
It's uh it's uh not on a plateboundary and it's not near a hot
spot.
SPEAKER_02 (27:45):
Okay, yeah, yeah, they got some strange rules,
strange rules there.
I mean, uh obviously it's in thesettlement, long you've been
about 2,000 people there, butthere's also three and a half
thousand polar bears, right?
And that's why it's more if yougo out at settlement, you have
to take a rifle with you by law.
SPEAKER_00 (28:01):
Yeah, we saw quite a few, did you?
SPEAKER_02 (28:04):
Yeah, I I I I did, and uh but um I did walk a fair
bit there, but not at nighttime, obviously.
But I I didn't go extensive.
Um I walked a fair bit.
I was just trying to relaxthere, but you know, as a human
being, we're not allowed to diethere, right?
Right.
And it's weird, and women can'tgive birth there, obviously.
(28:26):
And and cats are forbiddenbecause they they uh they feel
on the birds of prey there, butit's it's just a spectacular
thing.
But the people who live thereare just happy, you know.
SPEAKER_00 (28:37):
Very, yeah.
One of my favorite things isthat you know, everybody that is
in Svalbard, they're there for areason, right?
So whether that's like trekkingor uh really appreciating
nature, like because it's such ajourney to get there.
So you get some really coolfolks that end up at the North
Pole.
SPEAKER_02 (28:55):
Yeah, it's uh I don't know how far it is from
the North Pole, but it's it'sdoable, obviously.
You're that far north, but uhyeah, I I thought it's fantastic
there.
And uh I just remember going toa uh coffee shop there in uh
long year again.
It's called Huskers.
SPEAKER_00 (29:11):
Oh, I went to that, I sure did.
SPEAKER_03 (29:12):
I know you go in and uh yeah, and Husky come to sit
by you, and I the truth behindthat is yeah, they're retired
sled dogs.
They go for seven years and theygo hang out in the cafe and
communicate with us.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (29:29):
It's lovely, so I'd love to go back there again one
day.
I mean, um, you know, you'veyou've got pretty inactive
calibers, you're you'retraveling a lot, right?
SPEAKER_00 (29:39):
I am.
Um so where did where do youeven start with that?
So uh I was a professor in theclassroom, tenure professor for
uh almost 20 20 years.
Um and let's see, like in2019-ish, my husband and I came
up with an idea that we wantedto live full-time in a camper
van.
(30:00):
Um, and so we just kind of putour wheels in motion on how we
were gonna make that happen andhow we were gonna work remote
remotely.
And um, I knew that meant that Iwas gonna have to step away from
tenure.
So that's where my tour companycame into fruition, adventure
geology tours.
Because I I what do I love todo?
I love to teach, I love geology,and I love to travel and I'm
(30:22):
good at it.
I've led so many study abroadtrips, and so that was the
inception of the tour company.
Um, and um my husband was ableto um step away from his
position and and in his work.
Um, and we started building acamper van in 2022, and we
(30:43):
finally finished it, and we umshipped it from Baltimore,
Maryland to Belgium in March of2026.
So just a few months ago.
SPEAKER_02 (30:53):
Yeah, I just waiting for you.
Why didn't you go over that?
SPEAKER_00 (30:55):
Yeah, and so um um, so that's what we're kind of up
to.
So um we came back to Atlantathis month just to get ready for
our tours because we'll leadsome tours to Iceland in in
July.
So we had to get pack and getour the rest of our outdoor
gear, but um yeah, so we'refull-time, we call ourselves
professional travelers, and welive in a uh 22-foot uh sprinter
(31:19):
camper van um with 82 squarefeet.
So you don't have a lot ofthings, but you have exactly
what you need, and um we couldnot be happier.
SPEAKER_02 (31:28):
That's fantastic.
Obviously, you got kitchen uhfacilities there, you can sleep
in there, and and you know, withcan't not that ever crossed my
mind in doing that, but um, butyou just get get in and you
said, well, where should we gonext?
And just drive there.
And uh I mean the the road areain Europe is fairly good anyway,
(31:50):
although you can get if youdidn't want to do that, trains
uh are excellent there anyway.
So uh when you leave Belgium, ifyou uh in your your camper band,
where are you gonna go first?
SPEAKER_00 (32:01):
We already did.
So um we picked it up in Marchof 2026.
SPEAKER_02 (32:05):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (32:05):
So the spring of this last year, um, from
Belgium.
We um uh we had to go back to wewent to Amsterdam.
We I mean we basically went allover.
We traveled about 7,000 miles,15 countries.
Um, and we met a van builder inin Turkey, and so we spent a lot
(32:26):
of time um out of the Singenzone because we only had a
90-day visa, and we reallyunexpectedly enjoyed these
non-Shengan zone countries, soMontenegro, Macedonia, Albania,
like just stunning landscapes,beautiful people, like we never
fet felt any like threat of umnot being safe, and we just
(32:48):
really enjoyed that.
And our van right now is inTurkey.
So we'll um after we do thesetours in Iceland, we'll head
back and and pick it up.
And we've made some beautifulfriends in Turkey, and uh we'll
hit the road again.
SPEAKER_02 (33:02):
Fantastic.
Now, where when you gosomewhere, um the term fly by
the city of Pants on it probablydoesn't apply here, but do you
you plan way ahead to everywhereyou're going, or you said, well,
we're in the band, where shouldwe go now?
SPEAKER_03 (33:15):
Or is it is it like it's spur of the moment thing?
SPEAKER_00 (33:18):
Yeah, so um my husband and I had made like a uh
a calendar of events that wewant to see, like kind of like
festivals.
Yeah, so um we're certainlygonna go to an Oktoberfest in
Germany.
Um before that, we're gonna goto the tomato festival in
Barcelona.
That's how we're gonna be ableto do that, yeah.
We throw tomatoes at each other.
(33:40):
Um, we want to see the tulips inbloom.
Um, we really like musicfestivals, so there's a couple
of muted music festivals on ourradar.
And um, and so you know, kind ofwe have these hard dates, and
then we just kind of, like yousaid, kind of fly by the seas of
our pants.
And really, like the beautifulthing about the van is that
we're not tied to touristdestinations, so we can really
(34:03):
get into some of these likesmall, off-the-beaten path
places and you know, really seehow people live and learn about
the culture.
SPEAKER_02 (34:11):
Yeah, that's a very different angle with them.
Exactly.
SPEAKER_00 (34:14):
Yeah, very different perspective.
And people are as interested inus as we are in them, um, having
the van.
So um it's very much an easylike conversation piece.
SPEAKER_02 (34:25):
Yeah, uh that's that's absolutely excellent.
Now, obviously, you've got tofill it with petrol gas and
along the way.
So, how many hours would youdrive a day typically before you
to pull over them?
SPEAKER_00 (34:36):
Um kind of depends on where we're at and where
we're headed.
SPEAKER_02 (34:41):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (34:41):
So for sure, probably not more than um an
eight-hour, um an eight-hourtrek.
SPEAKER_02 (34:48):
Yeah, that yeah, that's substantial.
I wonder, you know, I I'm notused to driving long distances
uh for for whatever reason.
Um because I'm born and raisedin England, or you do have can't
drive long distances there, butyou do get stuck in traffic,
right?
So anyway, it's uh so I don't dothat, but just just fly or
whatever or get a tr a train,maybe.
But at least you're doing thatand and you're on a nice
(35:10):
vehicle, you just pull out.
Oh, let's pull over here and getsome sleep, and that's it.
That's right.
And you've got you pick up foodanywhere in your cooking
facilities, so it's all right.
SPEAKER_00 (35:18):
Yeah, the van's very the van's very comfortable.
So we have um a full shower withhot water, um, and uh uh a
commode, and we have a sink, andwe have a you know, hot pot, we
have a grill and heated floors.
Like if you want to check outour journeys, we have a website,
it's called Cats Be Cats,K-A-T-S-B-E-K-A-T-S.com.
And that explains a little bitmore of our van build and the
(35:41):
struggles we had with that.
Um, and then that's ourInstagram handle too.
SPEAKER_02 (35:45):
Okay.
I think another place, if if Ihad that vehicle and I I wanted
to do it, I'd probably head upinto the fields of Norway.
Oh, we've got a spectacularscenery of the sure.
SPEAKER_00 (35:57):
Like that's uh definitely on our radar.
And we said that like we'regonna travel for two years, but
I think that like we love it somuch.
My husband also has a spirit ofadventure, and so I imagine this
is gonna morph into somethingmuch longer than two years.
SPEAKER_02 (36:12):
Well, I tell you what, uh you know, you've got to
do it while you can, right?
Yeah, there'll come a time, andalong the way, you got
photographs and you pick upsouvenirs and uh videos and all
that, keep scrapbooks, ofcourse, and uh yeah, it's just a
great thing to do.
So uh you're just gonna keep ondoing what you're doing today,
right?
SPEAKER_00 (36:32):
I think so.
SPEAKER_02 (36:33):
And what's it like coming back?
I'm looking at the yourbackground there.
Obviously, you're in Atlanta,it's built up, and uh yeah,
obviously Atlanta's a bitchaotic compared to some of the
places you've been to, right?
SPEAKER_00 (36:43):
That's true, yeah.
Yeah, I can tell you that um thereally the only thing that I
missed um being being gone onthe road is the gym.
Um, but I have a set of weightsin in the van so I can like you
know pull over, do my yoga, getmy exercise in, um, as well as
my husband.
And um, yeah, being back is umyeah, it's uh it's a little bit
(37:05):
shocking, right?
Um, because of you haveamenities and unlimited water
and some so many different foodoptions.
Um, but it really makes youappreciate home being gone and
yeah, please you're back for awhile, then you probably get
itchy feet.
SPEAKER_02 (37:22):
That's why you go out of town again, right?
Because you want to see more ofthe world.
Okay.
Now I've got your website uphere.
It's Volcanoes What EveryoneNeedsToknow.com.
That's quite a long name for awebsite, right?
It is the name of the book.
Yeah, but uh but anyways, it'sit's it's I need to look at this
a bit more, but it's got yourbiography in in there.
But you're also known as Dr.
(37:43):
J, is that right?
Dr.
Joe.
Dr.
Joe, okay, yeah.
That's in my students.
And it's got about the bookthere and a press and obviously
uh uh some pictures there.
So uh what what what's the otherwebsite?
Did you say you got thevolcanoes, what anyone needs to
know.com.
What was the other website youmentioned?
SPEAKER_00 (38:02):
Um gosh, there's so many.
So we have adventure geologytours.
Okay, that's a tour company.
Um, geology of Iceland will takeyou to my first book that I
wrote.
It's uh the advanced geologicalconcepts of Iceland.
And then our van website is CatsBe Cats with a K,
K-A-T-S-B-E-K-A-T-S.
SPEAKER_02 (38:23):
Oh, interesting.
SPEAKER_00 (38:24):
And that's also our Instagram handle.
SPEAKER_02 (38:26):
Okay.
What what is that?
The last one there, Cats, uh,what about?
Is that just travel?
SPEAKER_00 (38:33):
Yeah, that's that's our travel website.
And we call ourselves Cats BeCats because one time we were in
Kat Man Doo on, and it was arandom Tuesday, and we were
drinking beer, me and myhusband, and it was pretty
quiet.
And all of a sudden, these Kiwiscome in, and they were just out
to have a great time and stirthings up.
(38:55):
And uh we we love them, and theykept saying, Cats be cats, mate,
cats be cats, you're a cat,we're a cat, and just kind of
like as a term of like you're anexpat, we're an expat, we're
traveling, let's get to knoweach other.
So we always we always thoughtthat was kind of fun.
SPEAKER_02 (39:11):
Katmandu, most chaotic city on the planet.
I think.
SPEAKER_00 (39:14):
This is, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (39:16):
And that's why I went, I spent three days before
before I ventured up into themountains uh trekking and and
the home of rock and roll,right?
SPEAKER_00 (39:23):
Like I we were really surprised at all the rock
and roll bars there.
SPEAKER_02 (39:27):
Yeah, exactly.
Amazing.
Yeah, it's uh unbelievablescenery in this is is lovely.
I uh I know, but but people wholive there, they love the chaos,
I guess.
Yeah, I guess so.
Actually, believe it or not,from where I started, I can't
remember the name of the hotel,but I don't know why I remember
this more than the name of thehotel.
But right across the street fromwhere I was staying, there was
an Irish pub, right?
SPEAKER_00 (39:48):
Well, there's an Irish pub in every town, right?
SPEAKER_02 (39:51):
That's wherever I go to, I Google British and Irish
pubs near me.
And that's why it always comesup.
The only place I went to thatthey didn't was Lhasa Tibet, but
they uh who knows, but uh butyeah, everywhere I know I did
type in British pubs near me andit comes up with something.
It's amazing.
SPEAKER_00 (40:11):
Do they always have fish and chips?
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (40:15):
Fish and chips or finch and chips, yeah.
There you go.
Yeah, fish and chips and uh bigfair curry as well.
But yeah, I know.
So we we gotta keep doing it.
So anyway, your websites are theplace if someone wants to uh you
have a trap tour company, so youinvite people or you arrange
tours for people, do you, or youinvite them to come along with
you?
How's that work?
SPEAKER_00 (40:35):
Yeah, we we arrange tours.
Um, so we go to Iceland uh everyyear, and then we add another
tour, so different, differentlocations.
So um we go to Iceland, theArctic Circle, uh Costa Rica, uh
Patagonia, and we're addingItaly in 2028.
SPEAKER_02 (40:53):
Okay, well, fantastic.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (40:56):
Ever evolving.
SPEAKER_02 (40:57):
Yeah, I've I've got a I've got a I've been to
Argentina a couple of times, butI've never gone the real south,
you know, to the Antarctic.
That's on my to-do list.
As as of the place you'llmention earlier, right at the
beginning, is the Amazon jungle,right?
I want to go there, so flying toManaus and then go from there.
So that's that's what I'mthinking about also.
SPEAKER_00 (41:16):
And uh Manaus is a beautiful, beautiful town, and
it's a great launch to get ariver boat.
SPEAKER_02 (41:21):
Yep, exactly.
So we gotta keep on doing it,but uh so people know how to get
hold of you, and that's great.
So um, do you have any otherthings you'd like to say to the
people out there?
SPEAKER_00 (41:33):
You know, um, the world's a great place and a big
place.
And I think that you know, themost important thing that I
always take away is that umthere are many more great and
wonderful people in the worldthan there are negative people.
And you experience that when youtravel.
And so it's you know, reallyopen going into travel with like
(41:56):
open eyes and open perspectives,and really like willing to learn
and understand is um you knowkind of like the spice of life.
And I think like once you dothat, you realize like how
common we all are.
Like people really just want thesame things, right?
You just want food and shelterand security and community, and
um, and I think that it's reallyhumbling to see that and
(42:19):
understand that.
SPEAKER_02 (42:20):
Yeah, it's very important today, especially to
uh we're all human beings atheart.
I've hung out with nomads ofMongolia, the mountain tribes in
Northern Thailand, and thedesert nomads in Namibia.
It's surprising because at theend of the day, I have the
mountain tribes in theHimalayas.
I learned how they're they live,and at the end of the day, they
live that way because they wantto.
(42:42):
Right.
And that's that's what we'reabout.
And they're happy, it'sclose-knit communities.
It's uh it's really eye-opening,really.
And that's that's what we do,right?
That's right.
Well, Tammy, or Dr.
Joe, it's been great to have youhere.
And um, yeah, um, I'm gonna lookmore on on your website and uh
find out a bit more about yourtravels and uh probably give me
(43:06):
ideas.
I gotta go there now.
That's that's my problem.
This book at list thing isgetting longer, not shorter, you
know.
SPEAKER_04 (43:12):
That's right.
Yes, it does.
SPEAKER_02 (43:14):
It is anyway.
Well, best wishes to you ontravels in the future.
SPEAKER_00 (43:18):
And uh we'll we'll check in again later.
SPEAKER_02 (43:22):
You got it.
Well, keep in touch and uh youknow stay safe.
You too.
Enjoy Lantern while you can, allright?
You bet.
Bye-bye.
SPEAKER_01 (43:31):
That's it for this episode of the Travel Addict
Podcast, where we chase sunsets,flirt with danger, and
occasionally make questionablechoices in foreign lands.
Until next time, may yourflights be on time.
And your travel stories justscandalous enough to leave a few
details out.
Check out Malcolm's websites atmalcolmteesdale.com and
(43:53):
travelingenglishman.com.
Save travels and enjoy life,everyone.
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