How Nicole Richter explores volcanos

„This is something that still fascinates me and serves as a constant reminder of how small and insignificant we are in the grand scheme of things.“

Nicole Richter (30), Potsdam/ Germany, mymuesli customer since 2015
Nicoles favorite muesli: Mango

Learn more about Nicoles whole Story in our video.

(Don’t worry – although the video is in German, English language subtitles are provided.
You can activate them by klicking on the link.)

Nicole is a volcanologist. And when the 25-year-old talks about her job, it sounds like something from the script of an adventure movie. She’s travelled a great deal for work over the past few years, including to Africa, Chile, Guatemala and Hawaii.

“The fact that I now work as a volcanologist came about pretty much by chance. I like being outside and living out of a backpack while travelling. That’s why I wanted to enter an area of research which takes me around the globe,” she explains. Nicole studied geography: “I spent a couple of months in Hawaii during one excursion and had the tremendous luck of witnessing the eruption of Kīlauea. That’s where it all started.” In the time since, she’s been in Mexico on Colima, then in Chile’s Andes and Atacama desert, in Japan on Mount Fuji, on top of various volcanoes in Italy, on Fogo in Africa and in Taranaki in New Zealand.

(c) USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory

“When you’re sitting in the helicopter, you don’t have much time to think about what you’re actually doing. Everyone in the team has a set role. It’s incredibly exciting, you can hear explosions from within the volcano. Then you see active lava flows, huge plumes of ash and suddenly gigantic holes filled with molten lava 100 metres below you. The waves of pressure pass through your entire body. And then suddenly peace descends again.”

(c) USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory

“I’m fascinated by this elemental force, not least because every volcano is different. Types of eruption vary, and when you witness them first-hand, you realise the magnitude of the energy being released. This is something that still fascinates me and serves as a constant reminder of how small and insignificant we are in the grand scheme of things. Transience is all around us. We are always in a state of flux, so much so that we sometimes don’t realise what’s going on.”

Watch our conversation with Nicole for yourself on our YouTube channel: youtube.com/mymuesli

Nicole: mymues.li/mueslifreunde-nicole