HR: 16:00h
AN: V34B-01 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: The role of laboratory experiments in physical volcanology
AU: * Manga, M
EM: manga@seismo.berkeley.edu
AF: Dept Earth and Planetary Science, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720 United States
AU: Namiki, A
EM: namiki@seismo.berkeley.edu
AF: Dept Earth and Planetary Science, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720 United States
AU: Karlstrom, L
EM: lkarlstr@gladstone.uoregon.edu
AF: Dept Earth and Planetary Science, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720 United States
AB: Experiment has always played a key role in scientific methodology. Experiments are used to explore new phenomena, provide systematic observations, determine model parameters, and to test theoretical models and numerical results. As the field of volcanology has become increasingly quantitative over the last several decades, experiments have thus become increasingly valuable. Laboratory experiments using analogue materials allow the study of complex interacting processes such as heat and mass transport, phase changes, and complex rheologies, all features of real volcanic systems. A significant difficulty, however, of laboratory experiments used to understand volcanic processes is the problem of scale - volcanic systems operate of a much wider range of length, time and property scales than can usually be studied in the lab. If experiments cannot be scaled they can at least serve as a tool to investigate processes and interactions. In this presentation, I review the value of laboratory experiments, the challenges, some successes, and some shortcomings. I will use three examples to illustrate how laboratory experiments can be combined with field observations and numerical simulations to provide new insight into volcanic processes: 1) solidification on the surface of lava lakes, 2) fragmentation of magma during rapid decompression, 3) the effect of bubbles and crystals on the rheology of magmas. In all three cases, the experiments have some limitations because analogue materials are used. However, they also permit a systematic study of the physicochemical processes that operate in real volcanic systems.
DE: 8428 Explosive volcanism
DE: 8434 Magma migration and fragmentation
DE: 8445 Experimental volcanism
SC: Volcanology, Geochemistry, Petrology [V]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005