Dr Sam Engwell Marie Curie Early Stage Researcher, INGV PhD title “Dynamics and Deposits of Large Explosive Eruptions” 1) The Twitter Challenge: Describe your PhD in 140 characters Investigation of eruption processes during supereruptions by analysis of deposits in deep-sea sediments.
Volcanoes
Science snap (#31): Mammatus clouds
After all the thunderous weather this weekend and being British, I thought I’d do a weather themed science snap. Don’t bolt yet; it’s a volcanic-weather themed! This is a picture of mammatus clouds following the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980. These clouds are pretty rare, unusual and distinctive. Formally, the Glossary of Meteorology defines mammatus clouds as “hanging protuberances, like p ...[Read More]
Life and death, and money
Mel Auker is an Earth Sciences PhD student in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol. A mathematician by trade, Mel’s PhD uses numerical approaches to better understand past, present, and future global volcanic hazard and risk. The recent tragedy at Sinabung volcano, Indonesia, bought some interesting thoughts to light amongst some members of the volcanology group at Brist ...[Read More]
Science Snap (10): The impact of eruptions
Mel Auker brings us our Science Snap this week… Many people are aware of the May 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington State, USA. Common photographs of the huge VEI 5 eruption show the large, billowing eruptive column rising into the stratosphere. Less iconic are images of the destruction left behind, demonstrating the after-effects of the eruption. The US president at the time, J ...[Read More]
Science Snap (8): White Island erupts!
James Hickey is a PhD student in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol. A geophysicist and volcanologist by trade, his PhD project is focussed on attempting to place constraints on volcanic unrest using integrated geodetic modelling. White Island is a small volcano roughly 30 miles off the coast of the Bay of Plenty in New Zealand. It is part of the Taupo Volcanic Zone, which i ...[Read More]
Science Snap (5): Volcan de Colima’s lava dome
This photograph, taken from a helicopter, is of the lava dome at Volcan de Colima volcano, Mexico in November 2009. Volcan de Colima has been active throughout history with over 40 eruptions since the sixteenth century. The last explosive Plinian eruption was in 1913 blasting out the summit crater. Nowadays, eruptions tend to be effusive with eruptions of lava flows and the gradual build up of the ...[Read More]
Science Snap (3): Earth’s biggest volcano?
James Hickey is a PhD student in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol. A geophysicist and volcanologist by trade, his PhD project is focussed on attempting to place constraints on volcanic unrest using integrated geodetic modelling. The newly discovered submarine Tamu Massif (pictured below), approximately 1500 km east of Japan, has been proposed as the wo ...[Read More]
The Cascades: A carbonate geochemist’s point of view
KT Cooper is a PhD student in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol. A carbonate geochemist by training, she is currently on a three-month secondment to Houston, Texas, USA working with Exxon Mobil. Recently, I was lucky enough to visit a fellow Bristol Earth Sciences PhD student in Vancouver, Washington for a weekend of volcano-spotting (and hiking) in the Cascades. As a non-v ...[Read More]
Science snaps (1): Africa’s Ups and Downs
Each week we’ll be featuring our favourite ‘science snaps’ on the blog. These posts will showcase images, photos, films and figures that we encounter on a day-to-day basis, as well as things which we simply think are cool and should be gawped at. All of the contributors to Between a Rock work in various veins of volcanology and so the upcoming images will be quite diverse… ...[Read More]