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You will be working with Professor Steve Sparks, FRS, Director of the Centre for Environmental and Geophysical Flows in the Department of Earth Sciences at Bristol University, and with members of his Team. Steve Sparks studies volcanoes and how they work. His work takes him all round the world, the Andes, the Caribbean, Iceland and well as Japan. Today most volcanoes are not really predictable. In a hundred years time, as the result of research of the kind you will be doing, Steve is optimistic they will be.
The objective of your investigation is to understand dangerous volcanic flows. In many volcanic eruptions there are very rapid flows of volcanic ash known as pyroclastic flows. These flows are essentially clouds of volcanic ash and gas which can flow down the sides of a volcano at speeds of one hundred kilometres per hour or more. They form either when the volcano explodes or when a large piece of lava at the summit of the volcano collapses.
In your project you will see how we go about our research in Bristol and you will also do some experiments on the movement of pyroclastic flows, in your case using a long thin tank of water. A pyroclastic flow is an example of a flow caused by one fluid being denser than another. This happens all the time in nature. Other examples include avalanches of snow and dust storms in the desert. The physical principles of these flows can be understood by doing some simple experiments with salty water.
We will first give you some background on volcanoes and tell you about pyroclastic flows. You will spend a day in the lab doing experiments and collecting data, and follow this up with some analysis for your results in preparation for your presentation on Friday.
You will study flows of salty water in the laboratory, making observations and measurements. The underlying principles of the flow of dense fluids will be studied and you will analyse your data in terms of the forces that cause fluids to flow. Then you will use your results to estimate how fast pyroclastic flows can move. Researchers in our Department of Earth Sciences at Bristol University will help you to carrying out and analysing your experiments.
Monday afternoon will be an introduction to volcanoes
Volcanoes and plate tectonics (Professor Steve Sparks) Tour of laboratory and Earth Science department (Dr. Jeremy Phillips) "Volcano Island' a video on the eruption on Montserrat Pyroclastic flows and their effects (Steve Sparks).
Tuesday morning will introduce laboratory studies
Demonstrations of different kinds of experiment (Jeremy Phillips, Olivier
Roche) and why they are done. At 12 am there will be a short talk about Mount
Unzen Volcano in Japan by Steve Sparks.
Wednesday all day will be your day of laboratory work on
density currents.
The idea will be to look at the motion of currents of salty water in a tank to
understand the processes of pyroclastic flows (Olivier Roche, Steve Sparks and
Tim Barass).
Thursday morning you will complete the analysis of your experiments for your Team Report and for Team Presentations on Friday afternoon.
Friday preparation (morning) for Team Presentation (afternoon).
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