Collaborative Research: A Collaborative Study: ExperimentalSimulations of Volcanic Eruptions

密歇根大学和加州理工学院将开展一项跨学科的合作研究项目，以调查火山喷发管道和火山口附近的快速过程和流动的物理和化学。火山喷发的实验模拟将在小范围内进行，系统将复制气泡生长和岩浆破碎在喷发过程中产生的速度和加速度。该装置由一个测试单元组成，该测试单元排入一个可以排出的水箱。初步结果表明，简单体系CO2-H2O的喷发方式多样，既有爆发性喷发，又有剧烈的冒泡脱气（但不喷发），也有安静的喷发，偶有冒泡。该工作将在三个方面继续进行：(1)在多种控制条件下，改变粘度、表面张力、CO2扩散系数、腔室形状、压力等参数进行实验模拟；(2)对实验结果外推到天然岩浆系统的标度规律进行理论研究；(3)破碎机理观测与量化方法的发展。

A collaborative and cross-disciplinary research program at the University of Michigan and California Institute of Technology will be carried out to investigate the physics and chemistry of the fast processes and flows which occur in the conduits and near the vents of erupting volcanoes. Experimental simulations of volcanic eruptions will be carried out at small scale with systems which duplicate the velocities and accelerations generated during eruption by bubble growth and magma fragmentation. The apparatus consists of a test cell which exhausts into a tank which can be evacuated. Preliminary results show that the simple system CO2-H2O exhibits a variety of eruptive styles, ranging from explosive eruption, to violent bubbling and degassing (but no eruption), to quiet exsolution with occasional bubbling. This work will be continued in three directions: (1) experimental simulation under a variety of controlled conditions, varying such parameters as viscosity, surface tension, diffusion coefficient of CO2, chamber shape, pressure, etc., (2) theoretical study of scaling laws for extrapolating experimental laboratory results to natural magmatic systems; and (3) development of methods for observing and quantifying the mechanism of fragmentation.