Faculty note: Currier publication on magmatic mechanics


Assistant Prof. Ryan Currier of Natural and Applied Sciences has received word his paper will be published in the September 2015 issue of the Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research. The paper “Mapping real time growth of experimental laccoliths: The effect of solidification on the mechanics of magmatic intrusion” is the first publication based on experiments performed at UWGB, some with students. The main driver of this research is that magma chambers form inside the crust, and are not typically directly observed. Even the old, cold magma chambers that are now exposed at the surface are difficult to study in full. In Currier’s experiments, he created scaled-down magmatic intrusions (using molten wax as magma and gelatin as crust) to observe how magma chambers grow through time. The results could be helpful in developing new field studies of ancient magma chambers.