Back in 2010 the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano caused havoc, producing a colossal ash cloud which stopped air traffic across Europe for days on end. The lava meeting the ice atop Eyjafjallajökull created an explosive reaction and pumped vast quantities of ash high into the sky.
In general, lava meeting ice or water is an explosive combination, but there are exceptions like “pillow lavas,” which pile up in gentle blobs on the sea floor. So what makes lava ignore water sometimes, and explode on other occasions?
This summer scientists from the University at Buffalo in New York State will be trying to find out, by cooking up their own batch of lava, adding water and standing well back.
Using a high-powered furnace, Ingo Sonder and his colleagues are aiming to create around 35 litres of lava by heating basaltic rock up to 1,300C over a period of four hours. They will then trickle it down a narrow pipe (like the cracks inside the innards of a volcano) and inject water to see what happens. “We know the basics of the process, but we don’t know how it scales up to natural scenarios. We want to understand the conditions that generate explosions – how much water do you need? How much time?” Sonder says.
Wearing a special reflective suit, gloves and a face shield, the scientists will measure changes in temperature and pressure, and monitor fizzes, pops and bangs with an array of microphones. And ultimately they hope their results will help them to better gauge the dangers that some volcanoes pose.
