The HPHT Laboratory of Experimental Geophysics and Volcanology in Rome is building a new apparatus for the study of pyroclasts.
This new prototype, currently under construction, will be used to study the ways in which pyroclasts, which are fragments of magma produced by an explosive eruption, are expelled from the eruptive vent, how they disperse into the atmosphere and, finally, how they fall back towards the earth's surface under the effect of gravity.
These processes are reproduced in the laboratory and then filmed with high-speed, high-definition cameras in order to trace the movement and shape of individual particles that reach the size of a pinhead. The study of these phenomena is useful not only to know in advance where ash, lapilli and lava bombs will fall but also to know their quantities in the event of a volcanic eruption.
figure – The design of the new apparatus for the study of pyroclasts