GeoLog

Geotalk is a regular feature highlighting early career researchers and their work. Today we’re talking to Encarnación Ruiz-Agudo whose specialty lies in crystal growth and dissolution – the key to how rocks tell their stories!

First, could you introduce yourself and let us know a bit about your current research? Also, what sparked your interest in crystallography and mineralogy?

My name is Encarnación Ruiz-Agudo, and I am currently working in the Department of Mineralogy and Petrology of the University of Granada (Granada, Spain), as research fellow. During my career, I have performed active research in a number of topics. My PhD research, under the supervision of Prof. Carlos Manuel Rodríguez Navarro, was aimed at gaining a better understanding of the effects of organic compounds on the crystallisation of soluble salts such as sodium and magnesium sulphate, and on sodium nitrate as a possible means of protecting ornamental stone against salt damage. With this in mind, I studied the physical and chemical processes causing the damage to calcitic stone materials, and how some organic compounds can modify such processes. I also investigated other mechanisms of damage to the built cultural heritage, such as gypsum crust formation, and conservation strategies that can be employed to protect them, such as the use and design of conservation lime-based mortars.

Encarnación Ruiz-Agudo herself!

My postdoctoral research began when I joined the research group of Prof. Andrew Putnis(Institute für Mineralogie, University of Münster, Germany). I was awarded a two-year Marie Curie contract in this group within the European Initial Training Network, DELTAMIN. There, I conducted studies in situ – and at the nanoscale – using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) to investigate the chemical mechanisms that cause salt damage, specifically the processes of carbonate dissolution in the presence of electrolytes and organic compounds i. During my time there, I gained expertise in geochemical modelling as well as in the use of in situ AFM to obtain kinetic and mechanistic information on mineral growth and dissolution processes. My main focus: the nanoscale processes during the initial stages of mineral replacement and how epitaxy (structural matching at the molecular scale) between parent and product phases controls the coupling between dissolution and precipitation.

Earlier this year, your received an EGU Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Young Scientists for your “ground-breaking work on the structure of mineral surfaces, on fluid-mineral interaction and on the influence of organic and inorganic additives on the growth of crystals in multicomponent aqueous solutions”. Could you summarise in simple terms the research you have done in this area?

I studied the growth and dissolution of carbonates and silicates, and the effect of electrolytes and organic compounds on these processes. These studies have been performed mostly in situ and at the nanoscale using Atomic Force Microscopy and have opened the possibility of a new understanding of very diverse phenomena in geochemistry. and demonstrates the need for the inclusion of the effects of “foreign” molecules on the ions building the mineral when developing predictive models that describe crystal growth and dissolution in complex systems, such as those we find in nature.

The results of my research have provided evidence that supports a dissolution-precipitation mechanism for the formation of altered layers on the surfaces of minerals. This is critical as these altered layers may have a significant effect on the reactivity of these minerals and likely glasses, and help explain the apparent discrepancy – in orders of magnitude – between field and laboratory dissolution rates.

An atomic force microscopy (AFM) picture of a growth spiral, which developed on a calcite (CaCO3) surface during growth – pretty cool eh?

What is the wider importance of your research work?

My results so far are inapplicable to a wide range of fields including: cultural heritage conservation, biomineralisation, medicine, CO₂ sequestration and the oil and cement industry, where mineral-electrolyte interactions and replacement reactions are of paramount importance. The research performed in some of the topics described above has given rise to the patent “Binder for CO₂ sequestration: A manufacture method by selection, purification and optimization of carbide lime, and binders of environmental activity”, of which I am one of the inventors. This demonstrates the practical applications of my accomplishments, particularly since it is actually being exploited by a Spanish company!

As this interview is being conducted, you are on maternity leave. What advice would you have for young female scientists wondering how to balance their research work with starting a family?

I think it is a really tough work and I am still learning how to do it so I cannot give much advice on that. I believe that having support from your partner and from your work environment is critical. I think that women with a family and a research career must be prepared to work hard almost 24 hours a day, but I think it is doable if you like your job!

Last but not the least, what are your future research plans?

In the future, I would like to continue performing active research in this field at the University of Granada. I would also like to start a new research line relating to the mechanisms of element incorporation into minerals from aqueous solutions, with the aim of gaining a better understanding of environmental proxies. Our ability to understand how past climate evolves with time, and thus to predict future climate change, depends on being able to comprehend mechanisms and responses of the mineral, with respect to ion incorporation and changes in its growth environment. Furthermore, the same understanding is needed to control processes of importance to industry and society in general, such as the removal of toxic metals from polluted environments. The broad applicability of this research to urgent environmental and technological problems makes it of direct relevance to both public and private sectors.

If you’d like to suggest a scientist for an interview, please contact Sara Mynott.

This month in Geotalk, we spoke to Robin Andrews, a PhD candidate at the University of Otago, New Zealand, who takes us through the explosive aspects of one of Geology’s most thrilling disciplines – volcanology.

First, could you introduce yourself and let us know a little about your work and what drew you to volcanology?

Ah, introductions! Well, I’m Robin Andrews, a British postgraduate volcanology student currently based in New Zealand. I’m listed as an experimental volcanologist – apparently with an emphasis on the mental, according to some colleagues of mine. When I’m normally asked how I got into volcanology, I give a similar answer to the question of why I got into science in the first place. As a child, I often conducted scientific experiments in my home without the permission of my parents: melting all of the cutlery in the kitchen drawer using a lot of batteries was a highlight. The moment I found out that we are all the bottled, biological results of the accumulation of stardust, billions of years old, I knew I wanted to study something that painted such an epic picture in everyone’s minds in an instant. Volcanoes fit the brief nicely: no inner child can watch them erupt and not be bowled over in awe.

Nowadays, I absolutely love studying volcanic systems that could be works of natural art. My dream is to head to Iceland and use a snowmobile to circle around the eruption column of one of their very active volcanoes. At the time of writing, I spend most of my academic time setting off controlled explosions – both large and small – and study the dynamics of them through a variety of instrumentation; I use this data to make comparisons to explosive volcanic systems that would otherwise kill me if I stood by and observed them in person.

Robin Andrews. “Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure Science.” – Edwin Hubble.

My PhD is very satisfyingly unorthodox. I’m studying maar-diatreme volcanic systems, which are a poorly understood and badly defined type of volcanic system. Unlike most volcanic eruptions, which involve continuous eruptions, these systems are blasted into existence by one or multiple discontinuous blasts. As a consequence of this, there are many comparisons made to military and nuclear explosions, so, rather excitingly, for my PhD, I get to blow up a lot of things, from small gas blasts in a laboratory in Germany to large-scale TNT detonations in a field somewhere in the United States, all filmed on extremely high-speed cameras. These experiments have actually revealed a physical mechanism in explosive volcanology – and in crater-forming military explosions – that has not be seen before, thanks to the equipment used, a little bit of physics, and a tiny sprinkling of mathematics, it has been quantified for the first time, and a few journal papers I’m writing now hope to compare these results to both field geology examples and military tests. A recent collaboration with some rather brilliant scientists in the United States has also started the wheels turning on a project involving the volcanism of Io, which aims to investigate whether the aforementioned physical phenomenon could apply to the innermost Galilean moon of Jupiter.

Your PhD is focused on the dynamics of the 1886 Rotomahana eruption – what do we know already and how does your work feed into this?

We know that the eruption was rather unusual, in that the eruption ejecta produced by the roughly synchronous reactions of both the subaqueous magmatic system – which formed numerous gigantic depression craters – and the large stratovolcano nearby were pretty much indistinguishable. Apart from that, the actual mechanism for the eruption of the underwater sections, both thermally and mechanically, are almost entirely hypothetical. We know from very recent experiments that just adding magma to cold water does not result in any sort of Molten Fuel Coolant Interaction-type explosive release of energy: in fact, almost a third of the energy is released as infrasound. I’m currently focused on the mechanics of the eruption rather than the (far more expensive) thermal system potentially operating in such systems, but I’m hoping to move onto the latter soon. My work was initially focused on just this eruption, but its scope has since expanded dramatically as a consequence of the success of the analogue experiments I have been conducting.

Studying volcanoes can be a risky business – when you’re in the field – how can we use laboratory analogues to better understand them?

Half the fun of studying volcanoes is in the risk! Anything that resembles a scene from an Indiana Jones film or an episode of Doctor Who is fine with me. Nevertheless, it is true that volcanoes are particularly dangerous, and many times, tragically so. As aforementioned, they tend to erupt spectacularly and suddenly just once, often forming as a result of at least one discrete blast. Standing too close to these potential eruption sites – which in this case are incredibly difficult to identify pre-eruption – is almost always a fatal decision. The analogue experiments are a far safer way of testing out theories, especially for maar-diatreme systems. One major benefit of my experiments, for example, is being able to see the manufactured eruptions in “cross-section”; this is not exactly possible to view during actual eruptions.

Magnificent exhumed volcanic structures of the Hopi Buttes volcanic field in Arizona. Credit: Robin Andrews.

But you’re not in the lab all the time – when you’re out, what do you do to share your science with others not in your field?

The great thing is that I’m rarely in the lab, which is partly the fun of studying volcanology: it’s a very outdoors-based, physically active science. As for sharing my science with other people not in my field, this can be broken down into two categories: other scientists, and non-scientists. Volcanology recently came second in a survey of British schoolchildren when they were asked what their ideal career would be – something no doubt (and thankfully) provoked by the (at the time) eruption of that most unpronounceable Icelandic volcano. It’s quite the visually exhilarating science, and it proves fairly easy to convince both other scientists and the general public that it’s a good science to peruse, or to regale others with both academic and anecdotal stories. In the long term, I’d love to communicate science to the masses, but for now, I’m keen on spreading the word to the general public through storytelling. As for other scientists, this year I’m going to several conferences to present the ever-so-slightly cool footage of my experiments – and my findings – and spread the word through academic portals and publishing. The hope is that when I become an established (and hopefully respected!) scientist with a flair for the theatrical, the science communication to the general public will follow. I want to become a good academic first though.

Do you have any advice for budding volcanologists?

Absolutely, and I will phrase it in the following way. I had a conversation with someone wherein the topic of bottled lightning came up. Was it possible to capture volcanic lightning, a strange, striking phenomenon, in a bottle? Of course, the answer right now is no, but consider this: what else is a photographic print if not the bottled, frozen result of a camera capturing and storing light? Scientists set fire to the world in an unstoppable conflagration of knowledge and understanding that simply cannot be matched, with the message underscoring each new discovery being one of perpetual inquiry: the more we know, the more we don’t know, a combination of the laws of nature and human ingenuity. Scientists challenge the definition of the word “impossible”, and volcanologists are a small, but visually resplendent and indubitably exciting part of that. If you enjoy taking risks, seeing otherworldly sights, and travelling to the most beautiful parts of the planet, then get stuck into your physics, chemistry, and geology, and most importantly of all, never stop asking questions. Remain perpetually curious, and be impatient.

So, what next?

Well, it’s a busy year for me: I’ve got a lot of science to get accepted into the literature, a thesis to write, more of the world to see, a good few conferences to go to, and a lot of photography and writing to publish alongside all this wonderful madness. Constantly putting one foot in front of the other, academically and literally.

Peering through a dragon’s spine-style volcanic dyke into the exhumed volcanic field ahead. Credit: Robin Andrews.

If you’d like to suggest a scientist for an interview, please contact Sara Mynott.

Suwanosejima, which lies within the Ryukyu Islands, is one of Japan’s most active volcanoes, erupting almost continuously between the 1950s and mid 1990s. It has two active craters, the central Otake crater and the Bunka crater, to the southwest. While the frequency of these eruptions has declined, the volcano remains active, with strombolian and vulcanian type eruptions occurring every 2 to 4 weeks.

The geology of Suwanosejima, an 8 km long volcanic island. Source: Taketo Shimano/The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

Strombolian eruptions, typified by the activity of the Italian volcano Stromboli, consist of distinct bursts of lava from a magma-filled conduit. The explosions are caused by the bursting of large bubbles of gas that are released from a basaltic to basaltic andesite lava. Vulcanian eruptions, on the other hand, occur when the magma is more viscous (andesitic, dacitic, or rhyolitic). Vulcanian eruptions (characteristic of those from the volcanic island of Vulcano) produce large ash clouds and pyroclastic flows (dense currents of hot ash, gas and rock that flow down the flanks of a volcano). The andesitic composition of Suwanosejima’s magma places its activity between the two, with frequent explosions of lava and ash.

The largest historical eruption at Suwanosejima took place over 1813 to 1814, when lava flows from the southwest crater reached the western coast of the island. This eruption culminated in the collapse of the Otake crater, generating a large debris avalanche and a horseshoe-shaped caldera (the Sakuchi caldera) at the volcano’s summit. The photo below, though, shows a more recent eruption that occurred in the Otake crater during November 2010. Explosive eruptions were followed by continuous lava effusion and degassing and large earthquakes associated with the eruption were followed by harmonic tremor lasting minutes to hours.

“Eruption of Suwanosejima volcano, Japan” by Haruhisa Nakamichi, distributed by the EGU under a Creative Commons licence.

Reference:

Iguchi M, Yakiwara H, Tameguri T, Hirabayashi J (2008). Mechanism of explosive eruption revealed by geophysical observations at the Sakurajima, Suwanosejima and Semeru volcanoes. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research. Vol. 178, pp. 1-9.

Imaggeo is the EGU’s online open access geosciences image repository. All geoscientists (and others) can submit their images to this repository and since it is open access, these photos can be used by scientists for their presentations or publications as well as by the press and public for educational purposes and otherwise. If you submit your images to Imaggeo, you retain full rights of use, since they are licensed and distributed by EGU under a Creative Commons licence.

“Stolbchaty cape, Kunashir Island”, taken by Dmitry Demezhko. This image is distributed by the European Geosciences Union under a Creative Commons licence.

The Kuril Island Chain is formed by four active volcanoes: Golovnin, Mendeleev, Tyatya and Smirnov. Stolbchaty Cape, where the Okhotsk Sea meets the coast of Kunashir Island, is not far from Mendeleev Volcano – responsible for the many hot springs in the area. These are fed by seawater and heated as the water comes into contact with magma and hot rocks within the mantle.

The picture shows an outcrop of columnar jointed andesite prisms. Andesite is a silica-rich volcanic rock and the columnar jointing results from the rapid cooling of erupted lava. Rapid cooling puts the lava under stress as it contracts and causes it to fracture perpendicular to the cooling surface.

Generally, the top of a lava flow is the coolest part because there is greater heat loss from the surface of the lava flow, but to induce fracturing, the erupting lava must meet an extremely cold surface. Air is insufficient to cause such rapid cooling and the presence of these prismatic columns indicate that the eruption occurred under ice.

Columnar jointing within a caldera-fill ignimbrite in the High Island formation, with some Geologists for scale [Source: CEDD, Hong Kong]

Processes leading to columnar jointing in igneous rocks.

The photographer, Dmitry Demezhko, was not here to look at the jointing though; in fact he is a geophysicist, investigating the thermal field of the Earth. During the last five years he has conducted continuous temperature monitoring in a borehole here with the aim to investigate the origin of temperature variation associated with seismo-tectonic events in the Kuril-Kamchatka region.

Imaggeo is the online open access geosciences image repository of the European Geosciences Union. Every geoscientist who is an amateur photographer (but also other people) can submit their images to this repository. Being open access, it can be used by scientists for their presentations or publications as well as by the press. If you submit your images to imaggeo, you retain full rights of use, since they are licenced and distributed by EGU under a Creative Commons licence.

Picture yourself in the Himalaya mountain belt: millions of years of continental uplift have produced a vast kingdom of towering monoliths, and they continue to grow as the Indian plate pushes further north into the heart of Asia. These dramatic, breath-taking and downright enormous geological structures can be simplified into the following tectonic units: the Leugogranites, the Transhimalaya, the Suture Zone, the Tethys Himalaya, the High Himalayan Crystalline Sequence and the Lesser Himalaya.

Himalayan geology, showing exactly where you can find the view below! [modified after O'Brien, 2011]

“Ladakh” by Franziska Wilke. The Indus River feeds the agricultural oasis in Franziska’s photo, a vivid contrast to the surrounding geology! Distributed by the EGU under a Creative Commons licence.

This view is to the south, where the Tethyan Sedimentary Zone overlies the Higher Himalayan Crystalline (HHC). The HHC has been thrust southward onto the Lesser Himalaya through the northward progression of the Indian plate and the resulting stacked sequence forms a barrier to rainfall so that regions to the north are only marginally affected by the monsoon. One such area is the Tso Morari. The Tso Morari Crystallines contain large eclogite bodies (up to a metre across!). Eclogites are very dense bodies of rock that form under pressures far greater than those at the Earth’s crust (over 1.2 Giga Pascales). The eclogites found here contain a mineral assemblage that reflects this: garnet, rutlie, coesite and quartz to name just a few!

Franziska studied Kaghan eclogites, sampled during a former field campaign in Pakistan by her supervisor, Professor  Patrick O’Brien. Since travelling in Pakistan was, and is, quite dangerous these days, she decided to attend the Himalaya-Karakoram-Tibet Workshop in northern India rather than going to Pakistan herself, because she wanted to see the Himalayan eclogites and their relation to their host rocks. Besides having fun sampling rocks, she also enjoyed the breath-taking landscape and the opportunity to take marvellous pictures.

O’Brien, P. (2011) Subduction followed by collision: Alpine and Himalyan examples. Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors 127, 277-291.

P. Dèzes (1999). Tectonic and Metamorphic Evolution of the Central Himalayan Domain in Southeast Zanskar (Kashmir, India). PhD Thesis. Institut de Mineralogie et Petrographie, Université de Lausanne. No. 32, ISSN 1015-3578

Imaggeo is the online open access geosciences image repository of the European Geosciences Union. Every geoscientist who is an amateur photographer (but also other people) can submit their images to this repository. Being open access, it can be used by scientists for their presentations or publications as well as by the press. If you submit your images to imaggeo, you retain full rights of use, since they are licenced and distributed by EGU under a Creative Commons licence.

“Kalalau Valley” by Martin Mergili, taken from Kalalau Lookout on the island of Kauai, distributed by the European Geosciences Union under a Creative Commons License.

At over 5 million years old, the island of Kauai is the oldest island in the Hawaiian Achipelago. Hawaii, Maui and Oahu are all younger and lie further to the southeast. This island chronology is no coincidence – the Archipelago formed as a result of intra-plate volcanic activity.

Intra-plate volcanism occurs where an upwelling magma plume or ‘hot spot’ lies beneath a continental plate. In this case, the Pacific Plate has moved over a hot spot in the northwestern direction, so that the younger and more active islands are located in the southeast, and the older islands are further north. As the plate passes further from the hotspot, the crust cools, becoming less buoyant and causing the oldest islands in the chain to sink and form atolls when fully submerged.

Volcanic has ceased on Kauai and now erosive forces are those that shape the island, resulting in deep gullies and canyons cut into the highlands. In the north and northwest of Kauai the roaring waves of the Pacific Ocean hit the island after travelling for thousands of kilometres undisturbed. These waves meet a steep and rugged coastline with swells that can reach 10 m high on the Na Pali Coast. Running water has cut spectacular valleys into these cliffs, forming the Nualolo and Awaawapuhi, and Kalalau (above) Valleys. During the summer, carbonate sands fringe the island – you can just about see them here, but they are washed away by heavy wave action in the winter months.

This view of the Kalalau Valley was captured by Martin Mergili (Geologist from BOKU, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, and keen photographer), who explains that he took “this photo on a holiday trip to Hawaii in August 2010 (as far as a geoscientist can spend a “real” holiday in Hawaii). The viewpoint is called Kalalau Lookout, located in the humid highlands of Kauai, close to the misty Alakai Swamps and Mount Waialeale, one of the wettest places on Earth”.

Imaggeo is the online open access geosciences image repository of the European Geosciences Union. Every geoscientist who is an amateur photographer (but also other people) can submit their images to this repository. Being open access, it can be used by scientists for their presentations or publications as well as by the press. If you submit your images to imaggeo, you retain full rights of use, since they are licenced and distributed by EGU under a Creative Commons licence.

Geotalk, featuring short interviews with geoscientists about their research, continues this month with a Q&A with Dr Olivier Galland (University of Oslo), who tells us about his volcanology research and the importance of outreach in promoting the Earth sciences. If you’d like to suggest a scientist for an interview, please contact Bárbara Ferreira.

Olivier Galland at the foot of the Tromen Volcano, northern Patagonian Andes, Argentina, during a field expedition of Nov-Dec 2011. Photograph: Derya Gürer

First, could you introduce yourself and let us know a bit about your research topic(s)?

Becoming a volcanologist was my childhood dream, and my studies have always been oriented towards this goal. I first integrated the École Normale Supérieure in Lyon, then I completed my MSc and PhD degrees at the University of Rennes 1. I continued with a postdoc at the Norwegian Centre of Excellence for Physics of Geological Processes, University of Oslo, where I have become Senior Researcher.

My main research topics focus on the mechanics of fluid-rock systems and their implications on volcanic processes. In other words, what is the mechanical behavior of a system where a fluid of given properties flows into a deforming solid matrix? Such a system cannot be understood only from the point of view of the fluid or of the solid, but by the dynamic mechanical interplay between them. This fundamental mechanical loop controls numerous geological processes such as, among others, magma transport and emplacement in the Earth’s crust, hydraulic fracturing, and explosive volcanism. I have mostly addressed these processes through integration of field observations in volcanic systems and quantitative laboratory experiments.

Last year, you received an EGU Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Young Scientists for your “remarkable contribution to the understanding of volcanic and magma emplacement processes”. Could you summarize the research you have done in this area?

Magma transport plays a key role in the Earth’s dynamics, as it accounts for the main mass and heat transport through the crust. Although magmatism has been studied for more than a century, major questions have remained unsolved. For instance, geologists have assumed that volcanism can occur only in extensional tectonic settings, the extension providing space for magma pathways. This generally accepted assumption is contradictory with the occurrence of intense volcanic activity in the Andean Cordillera, where tectonic shortening has been coeval with volcanism. Part of my research work has demonstrated that volcanism can take place in compressional tectonic settings by focusing on a spectacular case study: the Tromen volcano, in the northern Patagonian Andes. Through several field campaigns at Tromen, we collected structural and geochronological evidence, which showed that the volcano built up during the regional tectonic shortening. To explain how magma can rise in such setting, I also designed a novel experimental apparatus that can simulate coeval tectonic deformation and the injection of low viscosity magma. The experimental results show that magma can migrate along thrust faults, strongly modifying our understanding of magma plumbing systems in active margins and volcanic arcs.

In 2008 you embarked on an exciting scientific expedition called the Andean Geotrail: “cycling 10,000 kilometers to discover the Earth and its resources”. Could you tell us about this adventure, including its aims and what you learnt from it?

The Andean Geotrail was a personal outreach project organized together with my partner, Caroline Sassier, also a geologist at the University of Oslo. The project was based on a 9-month cycling adventure in a spectacular geological environment: the Andean Cordillera. The aim was to use the adventure as a pedagogical tool to catch the attention of the young public and to trigger their curiosity through our own observations. This made Earth sciences less theoretical and more dynamic, and our hope was to create scientific vocations by sharing our scientific knowledge through a unique personal experience. Seventeen schools in France and Norway were associated, involving almost 600 pupils from 6 to 18 years of age.

During the expedition, we cycled from Ushuaia, southernmost Argentina, to Cuzco, Peru, and after the theft of our bikes, we walked to Nazca for a last 400 km long crossing of the Andes. We selected and visited more than 30 geological localities along the route to illustrate various implications of Earth sciences in our society (natural resources, natural hazards, geological landscapes). During the visits, we made our own observations and interviewed local geologists or workers. Since our return, we have presented the expedition in the involved schools and during public conferences, and produced an exhibition of our photographs.

By visiting the selected localities we obviously learnt a lot about the applications of Earth sciences in modern society. But overall, we gained an incredible human experience through the numerous encounters with the Andean populations.

You are also a keen photographer, and you were even one of the finalists of the 2012 EGU Photo Competition. How can Earth science photography contribute to promote the importance of geoscientific research among the wider public?

The most difficult challenge to attract the young generations is to overcome their initial reluctance to Earth sciences by catching their attention and triggering their curiosity about the Earth system. Our experience with the pupils during the Andean Geotrail clearly showed that it is a very challenging task without relevant support. During our conferences in the schools, the only way we managed to create a successful link with the pupils was to show them fantastic photographs of spectacular, unusual, strange and/or extreme geological patterns. Once this link has been established with the pupils, very interesting discussions started and it became possible to share our scientific knowledge with them.

Photography also has the potential to associate two communities that often barely interact: scientists and artists. In addition to be a fascinating scientific subject, the Earth and geological patterns are also unlimited sources of inspiration for artists and lovers of natural beauty. Photography of geological patterns is thus a precious way to promote geoscientific research and its associated challenges via artistic contemplation of the esthetic nature of the Earth.

Last but not least, what are your future research plans?

In the near future, I aim to expand my current work. I am leading a field-based project in the northern Patagonian Andes to unravel the structure of exhumed sub-volcanic systems emplaced in relation to thrust faults and folds, to better constrain the processes of magma transport in compressional tectonic settings. This is a good complement of the former project on Tromen volcano.

In addition, I aim to establish a quantitative bridge between volcano geophysics and laboratory models of volcanic processes. I am adapting my experimental apparatus to study the subtle ground deformation induced by the emplacement of magmatic dykes. Combined with new theoretical models, the provisional experimental results are expected to considerably help geophysicists to interpret ground deformation data monitored in active volcanoes with GPS and interferometry Radar (InSAR). In particular, this technique has the potential to provide a new tool to predict the location of forthcoming volcanic eruptions.

The Andean Geotrail project. Caroline Sassier lost in the immensity of the Bolivian Altiplano (4000 MOSL). Photograph: Olivier Galland

“Crater lake” by Michelle Salmon, distributed by the European Geosciences Union under a Creative Commons licence

At the border between the Pacific and Australian plates, crossed by the Pacific Ring of Fire, New Zealand is one of the most geologically active countries in the world. Volcanoes abound in this island-country, which contains the “world’s strongest concentration of youthful rhyolotic volcanoes“, and earthquakes are a frequent presence. Mount Ruapehu, a stratovolcano located in the middle of the North Island, is the largest active volcano in New Zealand, and is also one of the world’s most active. Being the highest point of the North Island, Ruapehu also sees frequent snowfall and hosts the country’s largest ski fields.

It was on a ski trip that Michelle Salmon, from The Australian National University, captured the stunning Crater Lake of Mount Reapehu. “This image was taken near the summit of Mount Ruapehu looking down on the volcanic crater,” she says. “The volcano’s active vent is filled by Crater Lake which varies in temperature from 10 to 50 degrees Celsius. This vent last erupted in 2007. There are three ski fields on this active volcano and this photo was taken on a ski trip a couple of weeks after a small eruption that sent waves from the lake crashing into the wall of the crater. The crack in the snow on the far side of the crater is a result of this eruption.”

New Zealand is home to some of the most beautiful landscapes in the world, many of which were captured on film by director Peter Jackson in his The Lord of the Rings movies. Mount Ruapehu featured in the trilogy: it was one of two volcanoes used to represent Mount Doom, a volcano in Middle Earth, the fictional setting of The Lord of the Rings.

Imaggeo is the online open access geosciences image repository of the European Geosciences Union. Every geoscientist who is an amateur photographer (but also other people) can submit their images to this repository. Being open access, it can be used by scientists for their presentations or publications as well as by the press. If you submit your images to imaggeo, you retain full rights of use, since they are licenced and distributed by EGU under a Creative Commons licence.

The text of this week’s Imaggeo on Mondays comes from the photographer himself, Brenner Silva.

“Volcano in the tropics” by Brenner Silva, distributed by the European Geosciences Union under a Creative Commons licence

I took this picture from an airliner in September 2010 on my way to the Estación Científica San Francisco, South Ecuador, for field work. The flight route Quito-Loja goes through the two highest volcanoes, Chimborazo and Cotopaxi, of the so-called Avenue of the Volcanos in Ecuador. The pilot, attracted by the good weather, announced an unplanned manoeuvre to get closer to the Cotopaxi volcano.

The picture shows Cotopaxi, a glacier-clad and active strato-volcano at the equator (summit 5897 m a.s.l.; coordinates S 0º40’ W 78º25’). The composition, with an ice-capped cone in the foreground above tropical clouds and páramo vegetation in the background, is unique to the northern Andes.

The Andean mountains strongly affect the regional and mesoscale climate by constantly triggering the formation of clouds in the foothills and by serving as barrier to moist, low-level jets and trade winds blowing from the western Amazon basin. At the same time, the local climate is also affected by El Niño anomalies in the western Pacific — a tendency towards an increase in irradiation and temperature. The opposite holds for La Niña, the ocean-atmosphere phenomenon that was ongoing in September 2010. Consequently, the Cotopaxi glacier is susceptible to rapid changes (~30% lost in 20 years). In addition, permanent glacier receding due to climate change strongly influences plant growth and composition, and severely affects the regional hydrology and landscape.

I am investigating vegetation dynamics using mathematic models, and climate and remote sensing data in South Ecuador. Gaining knowledge through pictures is important for me and my research. I think the picture summarizes all the elements above, which I have learned with the DFG Research Unit 816 in Ecuador and the Laboratory for Climatology and Remote Sensing in Marburg, Germany.

I shot the picture with a Canon EOS 550D, 55-250 mm lens, f-stop f/10, exposure 1/125 sec., ISO-100, and focal length 36mm. The picture is the best of four tries, from 12-9-2010 23:50 ECT/17:50 LST.

By Brenner Silva

Imaggeo is the online open access geosciences image repository of the European Geosciences Union. Every geoscientist who is an amateur photographer (but also other people) can submit their images to this repository. Being open access, it can be used by scientists for their presentations or publications as well as by the press. If you submit your images to imaggeo, you retain full rights of use, since they are licenced and distributed by EGU under a Creative Commons licence.

“Keanae coast” by Martin Mergili, distributed by the European Geosciences Union under a Creative Commons licence

Geologically speaking, Hawaii is a very dynamic archipelago. Each of its islands is an exposed peak of a large undersea mountain range formed by volcanic activity starting about 28 million years ago as the Pacific plate moved slowly in northwest direction over a geological hotspot in the Earth’s mantle. Big Island and Maui, the southeastern most islands, are therefore the youngest and geologically most active of the archipelago.

Martin Mergili (BOKU University in Vienna, Austria), the author of today’s stunning photo, says of these two islands: “Whilst Big Island, the main island of the Hawaiian archipelago, is growing through lava flows into the sea, in Maui the waves are slowly eroding the coast. There is still volcanic activity on East Maui which, therefore, maintains its appearance of a shield volcano. However, in a few million of years it will have been reshaped by erosion and rather resemble today’s island of Kauai.”

This photo is a prime example of Hawaiian natural beauty. The lush green vegetation, the dark volcanic rocks and the white and blue of the rough ocean combine to create a colourful yet somber print. “The picture shows the shoreline of the Keanae Peninsula which is part of the rugged, windward northeast coast of Maui. Here, ancient lava flows from the Haleakala volcano (which is visible in the background) meet the roaring Pacific Ocean,” Martin says.

He took this dramatic photograph in Maui in August 2010 during a holiday journey – “as far as a geoscientist can spend real holidays on Hawaiian islands”, he jokes. More of Martin’s pictures of beautiful Hawaiian landscapes can be found at www.mergili.at/worldimages.

Imaggeo is the online open access geosciences image repository of the European Geosciences Union. Every geoscientist who is an amateur photographer (but also other people) can submit their images to this repository. Being open access, it can be used by scientists for their presentations or publications as well as by the press. If you submit your images to imaggeo, you retain full rights of use, since they are licenced and distributed by EGU under a Creative Commons licence.