Clive Oppenheimer

Clive Oppenheimer on Mountains of Fire

This September we welcome British volcanologist and University of Cambridge Professor, Clive Oppenheimer, to St Andrews to discuss his latest book, Mountains of Fire. Featuring in Werner Herzog's films Into the Inferno and Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds, Clive Oppenheimer is an intensely knowledgeable speaker and we're sure to be in for a treat!

Volcanoes mean so much more than threat and calamity. Like our parents, they've led whole lives before we get to know them.

We are made of the same stuff as the breath and cinders of volcanoes. They have long shaped the path of humanity, provoked pioneering explorations and fired up our imaginations. They are fertile ground for agriculture, art and spirituality, as well as scientific advances, and they act as time capsules, capturing the footprints of those who came before us.

World-renowned volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer has worked at the crater's edge in the wildest places on Earth, from remote peaks in the Sahara to mystical mountains in North Korea. His work reveals just how entangled volcanic activity is with our climate, economy, politics, culture and beliefs. From Antarctica to Italy, he paints volcanoes as otherworldly, magical places where our history is laid bare and where nature speaks to something deep within us.

Blending cultural history, science, myth and adventure, Mountains of Fire reminds us that, wherever we are on the planet, our stories are profoundly intertwined with volcanoes.

Clive Oppenheimer is a British volcanologist, and Professor of Volcanology in the Department of Geography of the University of Cambridge. He has featured on both Netflix's Into the Inferno and Apple TV's Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds, and is the author of Eruptions That Shook the World.