This grant will support an international workshop focused on strategies on how to better integrate numerical and laboratory models of explosive eruptions with field observations, with the special attention to the understanding of transport of pyroclastic flows in active volcanoes. The worshop will take place March 31-April 3 2007, in Prescott, Arizona. The workshop will bring together computational, experimental and field-based scientists in an effort to improve communication in process volcanology, and a better understanding of shared research interests and future opportunities. The conveners are Amanda Clarke (Arizona State University), Jeremy Phillips (University of Bristol) and George Bergantz (University of Washington). The workshop will have several specific goals, including 1) defining the main fronts upon which the next wave of collaborative research projects should be built, focusing particularly upon bringing together computational, experimental and field-based study of explosive volcanism; 2) designing (conceptually) an Explosive Volcanism Database, which will house simple experimental, field and modeling data to be used primarily for (important) validation exercises and quantitative interpretation of field and lab data; and 3) designing a course module to be distributed from the database (or other site) to demonstrate, via the example of volcanic plumes or pyroclastic flows, how scientists develop a conceptual model into a quantitative or numerical model. Sessions will be organized around the broad topics of plume and pyroclastic flow dynamics and tephra fallout. This award will support participation costs to several individuals but preference will be given to those giving keynote talks, students and early-career investigators.
