A group of British explorers will be on an expedition to uncover just how people living in known fault lines around the planet live and face up to the unremitting challenges of setting their homes in potentially catastrophic locations along some of the planet’s known fault lines.
The Brits are Serena Davis, Tamsin Davis and Adam Whitaker who have received a ₤10,000 grant and a Land Rover Defender 110 from the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) in Gaydon , UK .
The team forms part of the Fault Line Living group and is scheduled to depart August 3 from Harwick to mark the start of its epic journey beginning with Iceland and then traverse 15,000 miles to Iran , stopping by countries known to sit along the earth’s geographic fault lines.
Over a 12-week period, the team will document the issues facing the communities living on these fault lines.
Iceland is home to something like 78 earthquakes each day. From there, the team will head to Greece, Italy, Turkey, Greece, and then to Iran Along the chosen route, they will have the opportunity to work with local seismologists, students and select citizens in each country to investigate how the various communities learn and adapt to everyday risks they face living along these fault lines.
Tamsin Davies has this to say about the undertaking: “It’s taken months of preparation to get to this stage, and we are looking forward to getting started. Between us, we have already visited many communities that experience harsh geographical conditions on a daily basis. This expedition enables us to go beyond our existing work and create a detailed record of our experiences which we’ll share with schools and other organizations on our return.”
Dr. Rita Garner, the director of the Royal Geographical Society says that the project became a reality thanks to its 30 year partnership with the Land Rover Company. The expedition will serve the society’s objective of promoting a “wider understanding of our world.”
Other expeditions carried out by previous award recipients include last year’s winner Atlantic Rising which is another team now navigating around the Atlantic Ocean along a 1 meter contour line that geologists forecast could be the new coastline after 100 years.
Land Rover’s partnership with the society is at the heart of its business activity which has been known to sponsor partners like the RGS-IBG. Along with affiliate company Jaguar, the noted SUV marque is investing ₤800 million in developing sustainable technologies such as hybrid sources of power and applications for lightweight materials. Its dedication to sustainability is seen with the manufacture of the Land Rover Defender 110 which gets carbon offset via ClimateCare running the Land Rover’s Carbon emission offset program in China , the Middle East, Sweden, Norway, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, France and the UK .
If you want to have regular updates on the Fault Line Living team’s progress, you can visit its website at faultlineliving.com. And for added information, check out Go Beyond Bursary at rgs.org/grants. For more details about Land Rover’s sustainability program you may visit landrover.com/ourplanet and for details about the Land Rover Experience visit Land Rover Training.
