Connecting Lava Rheology and Flow Dynamics Using Novel Field and Modeling Techniques

熔岩流在整个太阳系中非常丰富，是喷发岩浆最常见的安置方式。熔岩流掌握着关于行星演化基本过程的关键信息，但同时也给居住在一些活火山附近的社区带来了巨大的风险。尽管它们在塑造地球和影响社会方面具有明显的重要性，但关于熔岩流的性质和行为，仍有许多悬而未决的问题。本项目旨在将一种新的实地测量熔岩变形的观测技术与综合流动建模程序相结合，以便更好地了解熔岩的物理性质以及活动流动的行为和动力学。更准确地描述自然环境下熔岩的力学特性，以及控制熔岩流就位的过程，将有助于解决一些基本的科学问题，比如海洋地壳是如何形成的，或者火山活跃的卫星和行星的表面是如何形成的。所提出的工作适用于广泛环境下的熔岩流。研究人员将采用一种新的实验、观察和分析方法，旨在非常详细地测量活跃渠化流中的熔岩速度，并从中推断出流变模型。他们将利用可见光和红外高分辨率摄像机，就地捕捉熔岩流动的整个表面速度和温度场。他们对活火山（如夏威夷或意大利）的天然熔岩流和锡拉丘兹大学熔岩项目实验设施（http://lavaproject.syr.edu）的人造熔岩流进行了观察。这项工作的理论方面将采用现代计算机视觉技术从捕获的图像中提取速度场。在实验和现场获得的数据将用于缩小描述流动熔岩所需的最合适的流变模型和参数。这将通过系统地检查具有不同流变性和几何形状的渠化流动的数值正演模型来完成。这项工作将是第一次在如此详细和近距离地研究熔岩流变学和变形。在观测工作的同时，计划推进用于模拟熔岩流的计算工具，以便允许模型考虑复杂的流变学和流动结构。例如，他们将努力开发一种建模工具，该工具将包括基于现场的流变模型，并将支持自通道化，这是目前社区无法获得的重要功能。他们将使他们的建模工具具有通用性和灵活性，以适应广泛的火山爆发环境，包括其他行星上的陆地、海底和火山地形。

Lava flows are abundant throughout the solar system, and are the most common fashion in which erupted magmas are emplaced. Lava flows hold key information about fundamental processes of planetary evolution, but at the same time present a great risk to the communities residing near some active volcanoes. Despite their clear importance in shaping the planet and affecting society, there are many open questions regarding the properties and behavior of lava flows. This project aims to combine a novel observational technique for measuring lava deformation in the field with a comprehensive flow modeling program in order to develop a better understanding of lava physical properties and the behavior and dynamics of active flows. Gaining more accurate descriptions of the mechanical properties of lavas in their natural environment and of the processes controlling flow emplacement will help address fundamental scientific questions, such as the way oceanic crust is formed or how the faces of volcanically-active moons and planets are shaped. The proposed work is applicable to lava flows in a wide range of environments. The researchers will employ a new experimental, observational and analytical methodology designed to measure lava velocity in active channelized flows in great detail and to infer a rheology model from it. They will capture, in-situ, the entire surface velocity and temperature fields of the flowing lava using both visible and infrared high-resolution cameras. They make observations on both natural lava flows in active volcanoes (e.g., in Hawai'i or Italy) and man-made lava flows at the Lava Project experimental facility in Syracuse University (http://lavaproject.syr.edu). The theoretical aspects of this work will employ modern computer-vision techniques to extract the velocity field from the captured imagery. Data obtained in the experiments and in the field will be used to narrow down the most appropriate rheological model and parameters that are needed to describe flowing lava. This will be done by systematically examining numerical forward-models of channelized flow with varying rheologies and geometries. This work will be the first time that lava rheology and deformation are studied at such detail and close range. In parallel to the observational effort, it is planned to advance the computational tools used to model lava flows, in order to allow models that account for complex rheologies and flow structures. For example, they will strive to develop a modeling tool that will include the field-based rheological model and will support self- channelization, an important capability currently not available to the community. They will make their modeling tool general and flexible, to accommodate a wide set of eruption environments, including terrestrial, submarine and volcanic terrains on other planets.