Laboratory Details

Fragmentation Lab

Explosive volcanic eruptions and their eruptive products impact humans, the environment and infrastructures on local, regional and global scales. For the wide-reaching hazard they pose to our global society, the focus of volcanology is to determine the process controlling the eruptive dynamics of volcanoes and their impact on the Earth system. Modern volcanology is founded on three main methodological pillars: 1) field observations and measurements, 2) laboratory experiments, 3) numerical modelling. The combination of those techniques is paramount to untangle the highly complex nature of processes controlling volcanic eruptions and to provide a reliable and quantitative estimate of the hazard they pose. In particular laboratory research is pivotal in the way it provides quntitative fundamental input parameters to constrain both field observation and numerical models. The experimental volcanology facilities at LMU University of Munich is equipped with world-class uniqueexperimental setups and bench instruments which enable characterization of materials and simulation of processes at conditions relevant to volcanic eruptions. Details on the equipments operative at the experimental facilities can be found at https://www.mineralogie.geowissenschaften.uni-muenchen.de/facilities/frag/index.html