SUNSET CRATER: VOLCANO NATIONAL MONUMENT

Thursday 2nd of October 2025 at 7:00 pm

Mawson Lecture Theatre, 
North Terrace Campus
Adelaide University

Paul Curnow
University of South Australia

     Some 900-years ago the Hopi & Zuni people of the United States were to witness a huge volcanic eruption. In some Hopi cultural beliefs, the Qa’na Katsina caused Palatsmo (Sunset Crater) to erupt after people engaged koyaanisqatsi, a life out of balance. From a scientific perspective, Sunset Crater is a volcanic cinder cone located 24km north of Flagstaff in the U.S. state of Arizona. The associated incredible Bonito A'ā lava flow, which rolled down from Sunset crater only 900-years ago is a sight to be seen! 
     In this talk, I will explain why I was in Arizona, as part of my teaching Australian astronomical perspectives, and I will show you a few of the incredibly large telescopes they use. Moreover, I will introduce you to the Sunset Crater: Volcanic National Monument and some of the volcanics of the region. Lastly, I will introduce you to the Wupatki National Monument nestled between the Painted Desert and ponderosa highlands of northern Arizona, and the Puebloan communities that once lived in this region in larger numbers. 

     Paul Curnow is a world-renowned astronomer, and after 33-years is South Australia’s longest serving planetarium lecturer. He has been a member of the Field Geology Club of South Australia since 1992. In 2002, he served as a southern sky specialist for visiting U.S. and British astronomers who were in Australia for the total solar eclipse. After three decades of research, he is regarded as one of the world’s leading authorities on Australian Aboriginal night sky knowledge; and in 2004, he worked in conjunction with the Lake Erie Nature and Science Center Planetarium in Ohio, on the creation of a show that features Indigenous Australian stories of the night sky. Moreover, from 2018-2025, he has served as a consultant on Indigenous Astronomy for the Australian Space Agency. 
     In addition, Paul runs several popular courses for the public that focus on the constellations, planetary astronomy, meteoritics, historical astronomy and ethnoastronomy, which primarily deals with how the night sky is seen by non-western cultures. He appeared as the keynote speaker at the inaugural 2010 Lake Tyrrell Star Party in Sea Lake, Victoria and in 2011 was a special guest speaker at the Carter Observatory in Wellington, New Zealand. Since 2012 Paul has taken the role of Lecturer for the ‘Astronomy & the Universe’ course (EDUC2066); and between 2019-2021 for ‘Science’ (EDUC 2030) for the School of Education at the University of South Australia.
     Moreover, since 2021 he has been a member of the Andy Thomas Space Foundation Education Advisory Committee; and in 2023 completed a U.S. lecture tour, where he was a special invited guest speaker at several planetariums, colleges, and universities. Paul appears regularly in the media and has authored over 50 articles on astronomy.

University policy is to close doors at 7.00 pm, so be sure to arrive punctually! If you are late you may call the number affixed to the door. However this will only be available until the main lecture starts (around 7.10 to 7.15 pm). 
Refreshments will be served in the tea room following the meeting.
By request of the speaker this talk will not be zoomed. It will however be recorded, and a link to the recording will be distributed as soon as it is available.


 

This month’s tutorial is on FOSSILISATION. We all get a satisfying surprise when we find a fossil. But did you know that it's estimated that only 0.1% of living organisms become preserved in rocks as fossils? It’s a rare event. Fossils are important in Geology as they are a window to past environments and lives. In this tutorial, we will examine the process of fossilisation to gain a better understanding of how a living organism ends up as a fossil in a rock. Please be seated by 6:40 pm so we can begin this tutorial without interruption. Peter Briggs

Background to tutorials:
The tutorial series that is being presented this year by Peter Biggs and Kym Dixon is an attempt to take a geological concept and explain it in a simplified way that will benefit the understanding of those members who have not have not undertaken any formal course in geology. Also, more informed geologists will benefit from a brush up of these concepts.

The format is that the tutorial will be in the Mawson Lecture Theatre and start at 6:40 and run for 10 minutes. This will allow time before 7:00 to set up for the formal start to the meeting. For those who would like to attend the tutorial, try to arrive before 6:40 and sit more towards the left-hand side of the theatre (as viewed from an audience perspective).

                                                         Peter Briggs