This award provides 50% funding for the acquisition of an image processing system and high-temperature stage for use with a petrographic microscope. The system will be installed and operated in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at the California Institute of Technology. The Institute is committed to providing matching funds. The equipment will be used to study and interpret quantitatively the nucleation and growth of bubbles in silicate melts in a range of chemical compositions corresponding to natural magmas. A quantitative model of bubbling in magmas is an important step leading to an interpretation of the origin of igneous rocks, volcanos, and an understanding of the Earth's mass budget of critical gases such as H2O and CO2.
