Research

From nanoscale structure to eruptive behaviour

We study the physics and chemistry of amorphous solids, melts and glasses, from magmas to industrial compositions. Our experiments combine calorimetry (DSC, flash DSC), Raman and Brillouin spectroscopy, synchrotron X-ray scattering and imaging, and high-pressure synthesis. The questions that decide how a magma erupts also decide how a glass is made, so part of our work goes to glass and ceramic technology.

Melt to glass

Glowing silicate melt in a crucible, seen from above — **liquid**Silicate melt glowing in a crucible about 6 cm across.

A polished disc of black volcanic glass — **glass**The melt quenched fast enough to stay amorphous: a glass disc about 10 cm across.

Electron microscopy of a dendritic crystal surrounded by nanolites in volcanic glass — **nano**The glass fills with nanolites. Scale bar 0.5 µm. Image: Di Genova, Brooker, Griffiths, Heard.

Nanolites are crystals a few tens of nanometres across, more than a thousand times thinner than a human hair. They grow when a melt cools or degasses too slowly to stay a glass, and they can make magma much more viscous.

Projects

The grants behind this work, NANOVOLC, CRYSTALKIN, the DFG projects, MELVIS and CERAMICVOLC, are described on the home page and in About.