Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-xfwgj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-22T06:31:15.448Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 1 - Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2013

Sarah A. Fagents
Affiliation:
University of Hawaii, Manoa
Tracy K. P. Gregg
Affiliation:
State University of New York, Buffalo
Rosaly M. C. Lopes
Affiliation:
NASA-Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California
Get access

Summary

Scope of this book

The processes involved in volcanic eruptions, from magma generation at depth to eruption and emplacement of deposits at the surface, comprise a suite of interlinked physical phenomena. In seeking to understand volcanic behavior, volcanologists call on a diversity of physics subdisciplines, including fluid dynamics, thermodynamics, solid mechanics, ballistics, and acoustics, to name just a few. Understanding the physical behavior of volcanoes is critical to assessing the hazards posed to the ever-increasing populations living in close proximity to active volcanoes, and thus to mitigating the risks posed by those hazards.

The motivation for producing this book arises in part from the editors’ experiences as educators, as well as our interests in keeping current with developments in volcanologic subdisciplines outside our own. Modeling volcanic processes, and the resulting improvements in our understanding of how volcanoes work, has advanced in leaps and bounds over the past decade or two. This is a result of both a maturation of our field- and laboratory-based understanding of volcanic processes, as well as vast improvements in computational capabilities. Synergies with the similarly rapidly evolving knowledge of geochemical processes also greatly enhance the physical understanding of volcanoes. However, in developing courses for advanced undergraduates and graduate students, we were struck by the lack of an up-to-date single-source book from which we could draw for instructional purposes. While several existing notable books cover the physics of specific aspects of volcanic behavior in detail (e.g., Sparks et al., 1997; Gilbert and Sparks, 1998; Freundt and Rosi, 2001), an advanced, quantitative text covering a wide range of volcanic phenomena is currently lacking in the instructor’s armory. Furthermore, with the rapid developments in the field, the existing books have become outdated. We view this book as the natural next step for students pursuing volcanology beyond introductory level, for which there are several excellent texts (e.g., Cas and Wright, 1988; Francis and Oppenheimer, 2004; Schmincke, 2004; Parfitt and Wilson, 2008), as well as an update on recent developments in the field.

Type
Chapter
Information
Modeling Volcanic Processes
The Physics and Mathematics of Volcanism
, pp. 1 - 4
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Cas, R. A. F. and Wright, J. V. (1988). Volcanic Successions. London: Unwin Hyman.Google Scholar
Francis, P. W. and Oppenheimer, C. (2004). Volcanoes. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Freundt, A. and Rosi, M. (2001). From Magma to Tephra: Modeling Physical Processes of Explosive Eruptions. Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Gilbert, J. S. and Sparks, R. S. J. (1998). The Physics of Explosive Eruptions. Geological Society of London Special Publication 145, London.Google Scholar
Parfitt, E. A. and Wilson, L. (2008). Fundamentals of Physical Volcanology. Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Schmincke, H.-U. (2004). Volcanism. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sparks, R. S. J., Bursik, M. I., Carey, S. N. et al. (1997). Volcanic Plumes. Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×