Professor Angus Duncan, Head of the Research Graduate School 

Professor Angus Duncan graduated with a BSc in Geology from the University of Durham in 1973 and a PhD on the petrology and geology of Mount Etna volcano from University College London in 1976. He is currently Head of the Research Graduate School at the University of Bedfordshire.

He has published on a wide variety of topics on Mount Etna volcano and is a co-author of Mount Etna Anatomy of a volcano – 1985 (with David Chester, John Guest and Christopher Kilburn) and was a contributor to the Geological Map of Mount Etna (CNR: Italian Geodynamic Project, 1979).

He has also published on Roccamonfina, Vulture and Vesuvius volcanoes in south Italy. More recently he has worked on São Miguel and Faial islands in the Azores as well as Arenal in Costa Rica. He is a co-author of Volcanoes of Southern Italy (with David Chester, Paul Cole and John Guest) published in 2003.

Current research interests include general understanding of Mount Etna (Sicily) and Fogo and Nordeste (Azores) volcanoes and factors that influence the response of human communities to volcanic risk.

External Positions

• Member of the Editorial Board of Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research from 1993 to 2007.
• External advisor to the Scientific Council of the Centro de Vulcanologia e Avaliação de Riscos Geológicos, University of the Azores

Recent Publications (from 2001) 

• Cole PD, Guest JE, Duncan AM & Pacheco JC 2001 Capelinhos, 1957-58, Faial, Azores, deposits formed by an emergent surstseyan cone. Bulletin of Volcanology 63, 204-220.

• Chester DK, Degg M, Duncan AM & Guest JE 2001 The increasing exposure of cities to the effects of volcanic eruptions: a global survey. Environmental Hazards 2, 89-103.

• Chester DK, Dibben CJL & Duncan AM 2002 Volcanic hazard assessment in Western Europe. Journal of Volcanology & Geothermal Research 115, 411-435

• Duncan A M, Guest J E, Stofan E R, Anderson S W, Pinkerton H & Calvari S 2004 Development of tumuli in the medial portion of the 1983 aa flow-field, Mount Etna, Sicily. Journal of Volcanology & Geothermal Research 132, 173-187.

• Cole P, Fernandez E, Duarte E & Duncan AM. 2005 Explosive activity and generation mechanisms of pyroclastic flows at Arenal Volcano, Costa Rica between 1987 and 2001. Bulletin of Volcanology 67, 695-716

• Wallenstein N, Chester D & Duncan AM 2005 Methodological implications of volcanic hazard evaluation and risk assessment: Fogo Volcano, Sao Miguel, Azores. Geomorphologie 140, 129-149.

• Chester DK & Duncan AM 2005 Developments in volcanology during the past 30 years. In: M S Balmuth et al. (Eds) Cultural responses to the volcanic landscape: The Mediterranean and beyond pp3–25 Archaeological Institute of America

• Duncan AM, Chester DK & Guest JE 2005 Eruptive activity of Etna before A.D. 1600, with particular reference to the classical period. In: M S Balmuth et al. (Eds) Cultural responses to the volcanic landscape: The Mediterranean and beyond pp57-70 Archaeological Institute of America .

• Chester DK, Duncan AM & Guest JE 2005 Responses to eruptions of Etna from the Classical Period to 1900. In: M S Balmuth et al. (Eds) Cultural responses to the volcanic landscape: The Mediterranean and beyond pp93-107 Archaeological Institute of America

• Chester DK, Duncan AM, Wetton P & Wetton R 2007 Responses of the Anglo-American military authorities to the eruption of Vesuvius, March 1944. Journal of Historical Geography 33, 168-196.

• Chester DK & Duncan AM 2007 Lieutenant-Colonel Delmé-Radcliffe’s report on the 1906 eruption of Vesuvius, Italy. Journal of Volcanology & Geothermal Research 166, 204-216.

• Wallenstein N, Duncan A, Chester D & Marques R 2007 Fogo volcano (São Miguel, Azores): a hazardous edifice. Géomorphologie: relief, processus, environnement 3, 259-270.

• Chester DK & Duncan AM 2007 Geomythology, theodicy, and the continuing relevance of religious worldviews on responses to volcanic eruptions. In: J Grattan & R Torrance (Eds) Living under the shadow: cultural impacts of volcanic eruptions pp203-224 Left Coast Press.

• Chester DK, Duncan AM & Dibben CJL 2008 The importance of religion in shaping volcanic risk perception in Italy, with special reference to Vesuvius and Etna. Journal of Volcanology & Geothermal Research 172, 216-228.

• Chester DK & Duncan AM 2009 Escape from Vesuvius. History Today 59 (8), 43-49.

• Chester DK & Duncan AM 2009 The Bible, theology and religious responses to historic and contemporary earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Environmental Hazards 8, 1-29