Jan
31

If you’re one of 800 million people who live near an active volcano, you should meet Kadie Bennis

Let’s say you bought a (very expensive!) house along the Pacific coast or in Hawaii, only to find out that you now own property within 60 miles of an active volcano. You wouldn’t be alone—nearly 800 million people, or 10 percent of the world’s population, live near a place where molten lava regularly erupts through the Earth’s crust. If you live near one of these natural geological behemoths, you’d want to know if the thing’s likely to explode sometime soon and destroy everything you hold dear, right?

DecorativeWell, thank goodness for Kadie Bennis, a volcano data researcher and professed “volcano junkie” at the National Museum of Natural History. Kadie writes the Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Program, which informs researchers and the public about the recent volcanic activity around the world. Kadie’s reports sometimes include complicated graphs (stuff for scientists to figure out) but they also include awesome pictures of active volcanoes and their activity for the previous six months that anyone can read and understand. Her work can help you keep an eye on the volcano on the horizon outside your window.

Kadie Bennis in foreground with river and volcanic mountains in background

Kadie Bennis stands atop Roy’s Peak, between Wānaka and Glendhu Bay, in New Zealand. (Photo courtesy Of Kadie Bennis)

 

“I really like volcanoes,” Kadie told Eye on Science. “Before I made a whole career of it, I was interested in the mechanics and driving forces of how they work.” Now, Kadie’s reports are read by a wide network of people who also really like volcanoes or have some professional or personal reason to know what’s going on with them. “Whether it’s people who live near volcanoes, researchers who want to study a volcano’s eruptive history, or scientists working with other volcano databases, everyone can read up on volcanic activity around the world on our public website,” she said.

Although Kadie’s primary audience is other scientists, her reports are still very much accessible to the public. “Most reports are technical and have a little bit of jargon, but we do have a glossary online. We won’t get into the super-technical language you’d expect from a scientific journal. I’m summarizing the volcanic activity more broadly so anyone can read the reports, even if they don’t have a background in geology,” she said.

Kadie’s spends most of her workday in front of a computer, reading data that comes in from volcano observatories around the world. When she arrives at work, it’s volcanoes. Over lunchtime, it’s volcanoes. In the afternoon, it’s volcanoes. It’s a good thing Kadie really likes volcanoes. But in spite of her job, she doesn’t want the subject to take over her life. If she spent every waking minute thinking about volcanos, she might erupt herself.

Kadie Bennis poses next to USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory sign

Kadie Bennis at the U.S. Geological Survey Facility in Vancouver, Washington. (Photo courtesy Kadie Bennis)

“I want to make sure I keep a work-life balance…the lines can get blurry. If I’m reading about volcanoes outside of work, I am thinking, ‘am I doing work right now?’” That’s why, when she’s not at work, Kadie tries to explore her other interests. “I love to read, but I don’t read just a bunch of science books because I want to grow in other areas, too.” Kadie is also a gamer. “I love playing video games online, on the computer, on console, and board games, and Dungeons & Dragons. It’s a good way to get my imagination and creativity out there.”

Exploring new ideas and learning about new topics is part of who Kadie is. The areas she focused on in college are testament enough to her wide-ranging interests: At the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va., she studied English, creative writing, and French, in addition to geology. When told she couldn’t do everything, she said, “Watch me.”

Kadie sure lived up to that challenge, because she uses her writing and other skills all the time, she told us “It’s cool having a varied set of skills. It makes it easier to write about volcanoes in French-speaking regions, because I can read the French reports. It’s important to realize that it’s very beneficial not to be exclusive to one type of field of study.”

 

Kadie Bennis with volcano in background

Kadie Bennis with the Mount St. Helen’s volcano in the background. Mount St. Helen’s is an active stratovolcano located in Skamania County, Washington. The Mount St. Helens major eruption of May 18, 1980, remains the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in U.S. history. (Photo courtesy Kadie Bennis)

Only four years out of her master’s program at the University of Missouri–Kansas City, Kadie is compiling the definitive global resource for volcanic activity. “It feels surreal sometimes.” Acknowledging she’s still on the younger side of the workforce, Kadie said, “I sometimes think, ‘Wow, this person [reading one of my reports] has been an expert longer than I’ve been alive.’ How do you even make sense of that? But then you talk to them and realize, ‘Oh, this just a normal person.’ It makes it a lot less stressful. I realize that everyone is here to do the same thing; we’re working on the same problem.”

Kadie is also making a lot of connections and networking with other agencies in the U.S. and around the world, which she said is forcing her to step outside of her comfort zone. “When I answer questions about volcanoes, I feel like ‘Oh yeah, I do belong here.’ I remind myself that these are all just people interested in reading these reports and it’s really cool to talk to them as people.”

The Global Volcanism Program at the National Museum of Natural History is the only group in the world dedicated to documenting the current and past activity of all volcanoes on the planet active during the past 10,000 years. Check out their dozens of volcano videos and thousands of images on their website.

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Posted: 31 January 2024
About the Author:

With a doctorate in neuroscience, Ben is not only the Science Press Secretary for the Smithsonian, but also a brainiac scientist himself. When he's not sharing science trivia with everyone he knows and correcting the errors made by the Torch Editrix, you can find him riding his bike long distances, baking cookies, and working on obnoxiously large jigsaw puzzles.