Geohazards, Volcanoes and Geodynamics Research

  • Emplacement of volcanic flows (including field, experimental and computational studies related to emplacement of debris avalanches, pyroclastic flows and debris flows).
  • Eruption column dynamics (including eruption column modeling and tephrochronology)
  • Phreatomagmatic eruptions (including surface and subsurface effects of magma-water explosions and fundamental physics of magma-water interaction)
  • Basaltic volcanism (including conduit processes, magmatic plumbing, magma recharge, mid-ocean ridge volcanism, lava-flow emplacement and basaltic field volcanism). Extraterrestrial volcanism (including mapping of volcanic landforms and modeling volcanic processes on the Moon, Mars and Venus).
  • Coupling between volcanism and tectonism ( including volcanism in extensional environments, and volcanism in the Andes)
  • Subduction dynamics (including slab-driven mantle flow dynamics, dynamic feedbacks between the subducting and overriding plates, lithosphere-asthenosphere coupling in subduction zones, 3D numerical modeling of natural subduction systems)
  • computational fluid dynamics of non-linear flow systems (including large-scale numerical simulations of non-linear mantle dynamics, computational challenges of modeling non-linear Earth systems, software for complex model design, leveraging 3D virtual reality for complex systems)
  • lithosphere deformation (including tectonic deformation at convergent and divergent plate boundaries, coupling of multi-plate systems in regions of oblique convergence, long-term mechanisms for mountain building, plate boundary tectonics)