 Did you feel that one? Auckland's been shaking all week because of near-continuous earthquakes. Hopefully it's not the beginning of a volcanic eruption like in Hawaii in May. But just in case. How prepared are we? Although this scene is hypothetical, it's a credible reality. The Auckland volcanic field under New Zealand's largest city is still considered active. That means another eruption is possible, but how would it affect the city? My PhD helps answer that question. I study how lava flows, like the top of my slide, impact buried infrastructure, like water pipes. One place we can learn from is Hawaii. In 2014, there's a lava flow approaching a town. To learn about how the community was impacted, I undertook a series of interviews with more than 50 locals who were affected. Water provider employees had two concerns. Their first concern was that the rubber gaskets holding zone one pipes together could melt, causing leaks. Their second concern was that the water in the zone two pipes could boil, causing steam burns to customers. Both of these concerns focus on the temperature below the lava flow. So that's what I base potential damage on. To determine temperature profiles below lava flows, I went to the lava project, the best place in the world to make little laboratory-sized lava flows. While I was there, I created lava flows in three different thicknesses and took temperature measurements beneath them. But wait, Earth can melt tons more rock than we can in a laboratory setting. So natural flows tend to both be thicker and active longer than the ones I created. So to address that, I took my temperature measurements and fit a heat transfer model to them. With my heat transfer model, I can now simulate temperature profiles under natural-sized lava flows on different surfaces, such as soil, old lava flows, or even roads. Armed with my heat transfer model, I can now begin to assess potential damage to buried infrastructure in an Auckland eruption. Determining volcanic risk in Auckland recently developed a suite of hypothetical eruption scenarios. I've used computer models to determine where the lava flows may go, how hot they might be, and how long they could be active. I can now use my heat transfer model to create temperature profiles, allowing Auckland infrastructure companies to begin considering if their networks can survive such temperatures. Although I'm still analyzing my data, I can give you good news. Less heat is transferred into the ground than previously thought. So our buried infrastructure, it might be more protected than we would have assumed. By the end of my PhD, I hope to convey that message in stronger terms. But until then, let's just hope that my opening scene with near-continuous earthquakes remains just that. A scene, not reality. Thank you.