Emily Bamber

I am a NERC DTP-CASE funded PhD student in the volcanology group at the University of Manchester, also working with INGV (Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia), Italy. I am investigating the causes of basaltic Plinian eruptions using a combination of fieldwork, petrology and numerical modelling. Plinian eruptions are high magnitude events, posing a significant threat to local communities and potentially influencing global climate. Relatively under-studied is their occurrence at basaltic volcanoes, unknown until the discovery, during the 1980s, of historical, highly explosive events in Nicaragua, Sicily and New Zealand, posing a challenge to classic models of eruption dynamics.

I will apply a multi-disciplinary approach to investigate the causes of these perplexing events. In conducting petrological and experimental analysis on new samples from Masaya, Nicaragua and Mt Etna, Sicily, we can test diverse hypotheses on the causes of these eruptions, to increase our understanding of volcanic processes. We can then incorporate this data into a numerical model, able to simulate conduit dynamics and subsequently, the driving mechanisms of these obscure, explosive events. In simulating conduit dynamics at these volcanoes, we gain understanding of the processes transforming a relatively benign volcano into a highly explosive system, a significant practical application for vulnerable communities.

I completed my BSc at the University of Manchester in Geology, prior to my MSc in Geoscience at University College London, where I specialised in volcanology. For this research project, I examined sulphur transport and degassing in lava flows of the basaltic fissure eruptions of Eldgjá and Laki, south-east Iceland.