Volcanic eruptions are both relatively unpredictable and very dangerous, and it's difficult to collect direct observations of volcanic phenomena. Because of this, volcanologists are always looking for safer and more practical ways of collecting data from volcanic processes. When they can't derive it from eruptive deposits, they turn to experimentation - usually in a laboratory setting. While this is definitely a useful approach, there are problems inherent in "benchtop" experimentation. Scaling down a volcanic process and using artificial materials (or already-erupted volcanic ones) can have varying effects on the usefulness of the resulting experimental data, something that volcanologists must take into account when drawing conclusions from experiments. Accordingly, a big part of geological experimentation is finding ways to reduce the complexity of natural processes in a way that still produces useful data.
One way to mitigate this problem is to do as little down-scaling as possible. This is the goal of a new experimental facility that the University at Buffalo is developing, and it was the subject of a recent EOS article of which Dr. Greg Valentine, one of the volcanology professors here, is a co-author. The article is "Large-Scale Experiments on Volcanic Processes", and it ties in with a recent conference our Center for Geohazards Studies coordinated last September.
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