Instrumentation

Experiments with lava can be configured under a very wide range of conditions. Some of the variables that we have experimented with include: the substrate that the lava flows over (steel sheet, steel trough, dry sand, wet sand, gravel, clay, snow, ice, dry ice or into water, etc.). Other experiments vary slope, temperature, vesicularity, crystallinity, and may include barriers that divert or arrest the lava. Lava can also be poured into a range of vessels (cool or heated) to study interactions with different materials (for example ‘xenoliths’ of various compositions. Temperatures are measured with a FLIR (infrared) camera for the lava surface and thermocouples are inserted into different parts of the flows. A range of video and still photographic systems have been used to document the behavior of the lava and create images for further analyses.