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A search of the academy's membership using the key word “landslide” turned up three names: a seismologist, a geophysicist specializing in theoretical rock mechanics, and a geologist specializing in biological forces shaping landscapes.

The eruptions lagged because magma takes time to force open existing fractures, explains Andrew Bell, an expert on rock mechanics at the University of Edinburgh who developed a model to explain the collapse of Mount St. Helens in 1982.

The experts have experience in geotechnical engineering, geophysics, rock mechanics and imaging and sensing technologies.

At one point Yasser Elshayeb, a professor of rock mechanics at Cairo University, struggled with his computer at the podium and announced, “This proves that technology does not work all the time.”

Yasser ElShayeb, a professor of rock mechanics at Cairo University who participated in the scanning, noted that some irregularities could be seen in the radar at first glance.