Sunday night update from Sarah:
As most people know I love volcanoes, and it's what I want to do with my life, so I went to all of the volcano talks today.
There was a session in the afternoon on intraplate and divergent boundary volcanism, which focused quite a lot on Hawaii. It was incredibly interesting! I learned that Hawaii actually has explosive eruption periods, which last for centuries, and these kind of switch on and off with effusive erution periods (one of which we're in right now). Explosive eruption periods are characterized by caldera subsidence and less material erupted, as well as ash fall and pyroclastic flows.
One of the other technical sessions was about anoxia, volcanic eruptions, and mass extinctions. Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs) are massive outpourings of igneous rock, from 100,000 km3 to 80,000,000 km3, occurring in short periods of time in intraplate locations. LIPs are primarily of mafic composition (and there are continental and oceanic ones), but some can be silicic. There are also intrusives associated with LIPs, as well carbonatites and kimberlites. LIPs correlate with the big five mass extinctions, but the effects of LIPs are not correlated with the volume of material erupted. The composition of the host terrane (many LIPs are found in sedimentary basins) plays a role in what sort of volatiles are produced.
Went to lunch with Aaron and the Matts to a little Middle Eastern deli near the convention center, and then a bunch of us went out for dinner at Mother's Federal Hill. The former was good, as I had a conversation about volcanoes and volcanic degassing with someone from Syracuse University, but the latter was... disappointing.
Tomorrow is the MSA Student Career forum luncheon, and one of the people I'd like to work with for graduate school is giving a talk in the morning, so I'm going to try and speak with him afterwards. If not, I'll catch him Tuesday morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment