Experimental studies of texture development in igneous rocks

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Rocks are the building blocks of our planet and the relationships between the minerals in all rocks provide a record of their history and thus reveal important clues about the earth's evolution.  Field studies of volcanic rocks and their textures lead to development of hypotheses about the history of and reasons for the eruption of volcanoes.  Experimental studies of texture formation allow us to test these ideas and more importantly to place time constraints on texture development, that will aid in developing predictive models for eruptions.   My research focuses on reading the history of igneous rocks from their textures; in particular, I focus on using experiments to simulate texture development and apply the results to understanding the behaviour of magma in the plumbing systems that lie below volcanoes. In particular, I focus on understanding the rate at which magma moves into magma chambers and the length of time it remains in these chambers prior to its eruption.   The experiments will be carried out in furnaces capable of reaching temperatures up to 1600 celcius and in high pressure apparatus capable of generating pressure and temperature conditions equivalent to depths of 120 km within the earth.  We will perform several different types of experiment to examine how minerals react with and dissolve into magma within the earth's mantle and crust.  We will also perform experiments with real and analogue magmas that examine how magma is intruded into wet sediments and how such intrusions can lead to large scale volcanic explosions.  Funding from NSERC will support research projects for three graduate students and five undergraduate students over the next five years.