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Meeting the public where they are at by creating accessible resources with familiar tools

Ajay Wynne Jones 1, Sharon Backhouse1, Natalia Puche-Polo2, Sergio Alfaya3, Alexis Schwartz^1, ^Richard Brown4, and Dávila-Harris5

  • Affiliations: 1GeoTenerife, Surrey, UK. 2University of Granada, Granada, Spain 3University of La Laguna, San Cristobal de La Laguna, Tenerife 4Durham University, Durham, UK. 5Instituto Potosino de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica, ; San Luis Potosí, ; Mexico.

  • Presentation type: Talk

  • Presentation time: Friday 16:00 - 16:15, Room R290

  • Programme No: 7.5.6

  • Theme 7 > Session 5

Abstract

To encourage the geo-conservation of outcrops or geosites with geoheritage significance it is essential to communicate this value to the public through accessible science. To avoid inaccessibility, in part, caused by the unengaging design of typical research outputs, we produced alternative research outputs. Davila-Harris (2023) describes the stratigraphic layers exposed in the erosive cliffs of Puertito de Adeje, South Tenerife, comprising geological formations that illustrate the volcanic activity of Las Cañadas. One of these formations is a welded ignimbrite, associated with a high-temperature eruption. The eruptive processes that can be inferred from the study of these units are of vital scientific and cultural significance regarding the volcanic risk to the highly populated municipality of Adeje. However, the Davila-Harris (2023) article is somewhat inaccessible due to the Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research requiring organisation access or payment and the manuscript being 71 pages long. True accessibility requires digital platforms that host resources that utilise varying tools/formats familiar to the public.  GeoTenerife produced an interactive, scrollable, and clickable Google My Maps resource, hosted on the VolcanoStories website. This has garnered 5,000+ views, thus, transforming complex scientific literature into accessible science. Google My Maps allows scientists to collate: photography taken in situ, summaries of unit description and interpretation, simple diagrams and YouTube videos transposed onto a map to indicate geographical location. Using this technique of transforming research into familiar tools, scientists can increase the outreach of volcanological research and thus awareness of volcanic risk.