Geohazards, Volcanoes and Geodynamics

The Geohazards, Volcanoes, and Geodynamics Group at UB is a thriving community currently composed of four faculty, one research scientist, two postdoctoral researchers, and typically 20 to 30 graduate students.

The group's efforts are dedicated to studying fundamental research and teaching in all aspects of physical volcanology.

Bea Csatho - (Professor) Remote Sensing, Glaciology, Climate Change, Geophysics

Tracy K. P. Gregg (Associate Professor) – Planetary volcanology (particularly on Mars and the Moon), mid-ocean ridge volcanism, basaltic lava flows 

Margarete Jadamec  (Associate Professor) - Geodynamics, Tectonophysics, High Performance Computing 

Stephan Kolzenburg - (Assistant Professor)  Volcanology, igneous petrology, and geological materials science using experimental, field, and remote sensing methods

Ingo Sonder – (Research Scientist) - Experimental volcanology, magma-water interaction, explosion dynamics

Greg A. Valentine (Professor) – Volcanic risk, basaltic volcanic fields, pyroclastic deposits, volcano fluid dynamics, volcaniclastic and surface processes 

We share a broad focus on geological hazards, volcanic processes, and geodynamics.  Areas of research include plate tectonics, subduction zones, mountain building, and high-resolution data-driven modeling of natural tectonic plate boundaries, volcanic flows, compaction-cooling processes, slope stability, geological mass flows, volcano deformation, volcano plumbing, explosive eruptions, magma-water interaction, mid-ocean ridge volcanism, volcano-tectonics, seismic hazard and crustal faulting processes (seismic and aseismic), aquifers-related deformation, environmental hazards, and resources sustainability.

The group's work links strongly with efforts coordinated by the university-wide Center for Geological and Climate Hazards,
 which works to nucleate and facilitate cross-disciplinary efforts to understand and mitigate geological hazards.  Recent work in this area includes probabilistic assessments of future eruptions in volcanic fields, and stochastic eruption plume and pyroclastic flow modeling.  An additional major effort is development of the Geohazards Field Station, an outdoor lab for large-scale experiments on geological hazards processes.