On the 7th November, Hugh Sinclair, uncle of Martha in Year 9, came to talk to all Year 9 and upwards geography students. The lecture theatre was packed with students and teachers excited to hear about Hugh’s experiences living near an active volcano.

Jessica from Year 9 tells us more about the talk:

Hugh talked to us all about his experience of living near a volcano and gave us a detailed description of what occurred when it erupted. He lived in Argentina with his wife, near the Puyehue volcano. When it erupted on the 4th of June 2011, he said that the first signs of the eruption that they had noticed was the fact that it had gone dark at 4:30, whereas the previous evening it had gone dark at 6:00. They then received a phone call from a friend alerting them that the volcano had erupted and that very soon all electricity would be cut. Sure enough, this did happen, which left Hugh even more sceptical than before. He decided that the best thing to do would be to stay inside and wait to see what would happen next.

The eruption was an ash eruption and had many long and short term effects. All industries collapsed, people could not go out in the streets without a number of items of protection from the gas for a month afterwards and people could not drive their cars for the fear of the engines being clogged up with ash. Despite this, Hugh spoke about the benefits of living near a volcano, including the peaceful vibe of the area and the amazing ski slopes that are in this particular area. Overall, I found this a thoroughly enjoyable talk and would like to thank all the geography department for making this a possibility!

Jessica, Year 9

Many thanks to Hugh for coming in and giving such an engaging and fascinating talk.