Stephan Kolzenburg
University at Buffalo, NY·Earth & Environmental Science
When a volcano erupts lava, officials need to know where the flows will go and how fast they will arrive. Those forecasts depend on rheology, how easily the lava flows, which is often summarized as its viscosity.
- Fields
Earth & Environmental Science
- Topics
volcanology
lava rheology
lava viscosity
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2027
What they work on
- Deploy two new field rheometer prototypes on active lava flows to build a large dataset of natural lava viscosity, measured in lava that still contains its bubbles, crystals and melt.
- Run two-phase (melt plus crystals) laboratory experiments at the temperatures, shear rates and oxygen fugacity measured in the field, so that lab results can be compared directly with field data.
- Quantify how bubbles change the flow behavior of three-phase lava by comparing field viscosity measurements with bubble-free laboratory measurements made under matching conditions.
- Develop a pipeline for rapid field viscosity measurements that feeds lava flow forecasting, and train staff at the Hawaii Volcano Observatory, Piton de la Fournaise, the University of Iceland and INGV Catania.
More about the research
Most of what is known about lava rheology comes from laboratory tests on small samples of analog materials or remelted rock. Those tests cannot hold on to bubbles, which escape during the experiment, even though bubbles strongly affect how natural lava flows. Field viscosity measurements are extremely rare, often made with uncalibrated devices, and have never been tied to laboratory data. This project aims to close that gap and to shorten the time between an eruption and a flow-path forecast.
Why it matters
Accurate forecasts of lava flow paths and advance rates are central to civil protection during effusive eruptions. Viscosity data measured directly in the field, and a pipeline that delivers them quickly to modelers, could help volcano observatories in the US, Iceland, France and Italy produce faster, more reliable forecasts. These forecasts could guide decisions such as which areas may be affected and how much warning residents may have.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
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James Gardner
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The school
University at Buffalo: 32 labs on PI Pages, $542M a year on research, 316 research doctorates a year.
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