OR/14/005 Recommendations for future work

Vye-Brown, C, Crummy, J, Smith, K, Mruma,A and Kabelwa H. 2014. Volcanic hazards in Tanzania. Nottingham, UK, British geological Survey. (OR/14/005).

A number of recommendations for future work were realised during discussions with both GST and TMA. The details of these discussions can be found in Appendix 1 Geological Survey of Tanzania (GST) and Appendix 2 Tanzanian Meteorological Agency (TMA).

Capacity building activities

Monitoring — Monitoring of volcanoes in Tanzania in real-time is sought by both GST and TMA to enable response. The current seismic array provides regional information but does not provide real-time information and is not sufficiently dense to enable volcano monitoring. Information and experience is sought from international colleagues on equipment, installation, telemetry and data processing. GST are working with collaborators to link seismometers deployed by research projects such as the NSF GeoPrisms project in Rungwe Volcanic Province to real-time data delivery to the office in Dodoma.

Training — Knowledge exchange is sought in the areas of scientific advice in hazard management and communication during a volcanic crisis and further collaboration with the international volcanological community to gain experience in these fields.

Hazard and risk assessments — Further research is needed to establish the past activity and behaviour of volcanism in Tanzania in order to discern the likely future activity, recurrence intervals and likelihood. Such data will enable the production of realistic hazard and risk assessments in-country.

Collaborative research opportunities

A number of opportunities for further research and collaboration were identified by BGS, GST, TMA and Dr Shukrani Manya, Head of Earth Sciences at the Dar es Salaam University:

• Assessment of the current state of volcanic activity at Mt Meru — initially using a seismometer(s) installation within a school or the national park headquarters on the eastern side of Mt Meru to investigate any magmatic activity.

• Volcanic history of Mt Meru — geochemistry, evolution and mapping.

• Regional geochemistry and volcanology of northern Tanzania to look at the evolution and influence of the main rift and conjugate structures on magmatism.

• Baseline geochemistry and volcanic history to investigate the origin of fluoride responsible for the high incidence of fluorosis in northern Tanzania.

Many of these would provide the essential knowledge to enable the preparation for an updated GAR assessment due for reporting in May 2016 and publication by the UN in May 2017.