International Research Fellowship Program: Advancing the Understanding of Basaltic Volcanic Ash

Lautze Nicole C, Redwood City CA

Investigators

Abstract

0754423 Lautze The International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct nine to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad. This award will support a twenty-four month research fellowship by Dr. Nicole C. Lautze to work with Dr. Jacopo Taddeucci at the Instituto Nazionale de Geofisica e Volcanologia in Rome, Italy for fifteen months, and with Dr. Bruce Houghton at the University of Hawaii for eight months. This project aims to provide understanding of the origin, fragmentation, and ejection of basaltic volcanic ash. Fallout of volcanic ash is arguably the most widespread of all natural hazards, having the potential to affect climate, crops, water supply and air travel on international scales. This project incorporates analysis of ash samples from single, observed explosions at Stromboli volcano (Italy), and performance of analogue experiments in Rome?s Experimental Geophysics and Volcanology Laboratory. Textural and chemical data will be gained on ~80 unique ash samples each from an individual explosion collected during fieldwork in 2002, and individual explosion samples collected using a motorized glider in subsequent years. These are among the most ?precise? ash samples ever collected. Comparison of ash in these samples with particles created in controlled-fragmentation experiments provides insight into the origin of ash particles. This project addresses questions such as, a) which are the main processes that generate ash particles during basaltic explosions, and b) to what extent can features of ash particles be used as a proxy for explosion dynamics? Insight into such questions will enable a broader understanding of past and future ash-generating eruptions worldwide.