Workshop to Focus on How to Improve Simulation of Volcanic Flows and Mitigate Dangers Related to Them

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Volcanologists and computational scientists from around the globe will gather at the University at Buffalo on July 18 and 19 to discuss how integrating fundamental physical models with sophisticated technologies, such as supercomputing, can help produce more accurate simulations of volcanic mass flows and mitigate the dangers related to real ones.

The workshop will be hosted by one of the largest and most diverse teams of scientists in the world investigating how the integration of technologies ranging from mathematical modeling and geological simulation to supercomputing and virtual reality can be harnessed to simulate active volcanoes.

Their research is supported by a $1.9 million grant from the National Science Foundation.

Workshop demonstrations of new technologies will be held at the Center for Computational Research (CCR) and the New York State Center for Engineering Design and Industrial Innovation (NYSCEDII), both at UB.

"Accurate modeling, simulation and visualization of volcanoes are some of the best tools we have to communicate to people who live near them the extent of damage they can cause," said Michael Sheridan, Ph.D., UB professor of geology and a workshop organizer.

He noted that it is far more difficult for residents to comprehend the magnitude of catastrophic volcanic eruptions because they happen only once every few hundred years.

"These kinds of eruptions skip generations," he explained, "so there is no cultural remembrance of what an eruption was like."

According to Sheridan, sophisticated methods of visualization like those available at NYSCEDII eventually will provide civil protection authorities with an important tool for communicating to people how such a disaster would affect specific features in their communities, including roads, bridges and residential areas.

Topics to be discussed at the workshop will include ways to improve the modeling of the physics of volcanic flows, as well the computational mathematics that describe them and methods of integrating complex and large data sets from numerous sources.

In addition to modeling of avalanches and other debris flows, there will be simulations of volcanic ash clouds.

International participants will include scientists from the RIKEN Institute of Physical and Chemical Research in Japan, Cambridge University and the University of Bristol in England, the University of Pisa in Italy, Massey University in New Zealand, Freiberg University and the GEOMAR Research Center for Marine Geosciences in Germany, and Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico.

U.S. participants will include researchers from the U.S. Geological Society, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory North Carolina State University and UB.

Workshop organizers also include Abani Patra, Ph.D., UB associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering; Marcus Bursik, Ph.D., UB professor of geology, and Bruce Pitman, Ph.D., professor of mathematics and vice provost for educational technology at UB.