9704290 Vallance The International Research Fellow Awards Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twenty - four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions. This award will support a twelve-month postdoctoral research visit by Dr. James W. Vallance to work with Dr. Stuart B. Savage at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Dr. Vallance will be studying the behavior of pyroclastic flows focusing on simulation and modelling. Pyroclastic flows are hot, dry flows of particles and gas with a high concentration of particles. This project will encompass all parts of a flow, including a hot, non- to partly fluidized, dense, basal avalanche having a concentration of particles similar to that of the original deposit, an overriding turbulent ash cloud surge with a very low particle concentration, and a convecting ash cloud. The study focuses, however, on the granular basal avalanche. These flows destroy property and kill hundreds of people yearly. This project will combine the talents of a field oriented geologist, experienced in volcanic hazard assessment and mechanics, with a professor of civil engineering, internationally respected in grain-flow mechanics and modelling, at McGill. ***
