Collaborative Research: A Collaborative Study: ExperimentalSimulations of Volcanic Eruptions

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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.