STUDENTS GET EXPLOSIVE VIEW OF RESEARCH AT VOLCANO SITE

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - A University of Arkansas professor and his students got an unexpected close-up view of an erupting volcano as they conducted research this summer.

Glen Mattioli, professor of geosciences and a group of students were conducting research on the Caribbean island of Montserrat when the Soufriere Hills Volcano erupted on July 12, about three miles from where they were staying.

"I’ve seen rocks that have been laid down by volcanoes. Now I have actually lived through that process," said John Mischler of Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill., a student on a Research Experience for Undergraduates fellowship at the University of Arkansas this summer.

"It was like winning the lottery as far as geology goes," said Jon McBee, an REU student from Wheaton College in Massachusetts.

Mattioli, Mischler, McBee, graduate student Elizabeth Van Boskirk and Neil Jones, a 2002 mathematics graduate of the University, arrived a few days before the eruption intending to add equipment to research instruments stationed around the mountain. Mattioli’s research, in collaboration with colleagues at Penn State University, Duke University, the Carnegie Institution in Washington, D.C. and colleagues from England, focuses on getting a more complete idea of what happens below the earth’s surface before and during eruptions to see what kinds of events lead up to an eruption.

While major earthquakes in the Caribbean occur sporadically, volcanic activity abounds on many of the islands. The Lesser Antilles island arc has 14 potentially active volcanoes, including the Soufriere Hills Volcano that erupted on July 12.

The prolonged eruption on Montserrat, which began in 1995, drove away more than half of the island’s 11,000 inhabitants, killed the tourism industry and buried the airport in a pyroclastic flow. The island has become a living observatory for researchers who want to learn more about active volcanoes.

To that end, Mattioli’s research group has worked in with scientists at the Montserrat Volcanic Observatory (MVO) to establish stations where they can get good measurements of seismic activity, deformation, tilt and strain. They have drilled bore holes to place the instruments far underground, where they experience less surface noise and more actual data than their counterparts on the surface. To date, they have four subsurface stations positioned around the mountain where they can collect this data and six additional surface sites.

Until recently, the data had to be downloaded at the site using a laptop computer, dumped on the computer at Montserrat and transferred to the researchers about once a month. Mattioli and the students planned to hook up equipment that would allow the data to feed directly to the University of Arkansas in real time. The data could then be stored at the University and distributed to researchers interested in specific types of information.

But the volcano had its own plans. Over the past two years, a dome had been growing on the mountain. Shortly after the University of Arkansas group arrived, the MVO informed them that seismic activity on the mountain had increased significantly.

Mischler and McBee were doing some work at one of the sites and could see ash clouds billowing above the mountain. They asked Mattioli if they could go and look at the pyroclastic flows, which contain hot gases and rocks that stream down the sides of the mountain. They got to a spot where they could see the flows meet the ocean.

"You’d see geysers of water flash upwards as the gas hit the ocean," Miscler said.

The students and Mattioli went to dinner the night of July 12. On their way back from dinner, a rain storm turned the ash cloud into a mud bath, and they had to stop often to refill the windshield wiper fluid because they could not see out of the window.

Back at the villa, the conditions worsened. They did not hear the explosion, which occurred between 11 and 11:30 p.m., but they knew what had happened.

"You could hear rocks hitting the roof, which was nothing more than wood shingles and open air. The roof started leaking," said Van Boskirk. Everyone picked up pots to put on their heads for protection should the rocks start coming through the roof. Lightning produced by the ash clouds flashed continuously and the air smelled sulfurous. Finally, the eruption subsided and the students fell asleep around 3 a.m.

The next day they awoke to a moon-like landscape, with everything covered in a uniform layer of gray. They were cleaning the car when they heard what sounded like a mud slide and a rock hit Mattioli in the shoulder, so they headed back inside and listened to rocks fall from a second explosion.

They saw residents resignedly digging themselves out from underneath another eruption that dumped about 12.5 centimeters of ash in about 1 1/2 h ours.

"What was once lush and green was dead and looked like a war zone," Jones said. "It was like we had gone to another country overnight."

Because of the eruption, the researchers were unable to access several of the sites to put in their new equipment. They managed to get one station fully installed, but had to leave without installing the others.

Despite that, everyone involved seems to deem the trip a success.

"The data we got from this eruption are spectacular," Mattioli said. Now it’s a matter of sifting through the data to see what it all means.

The students found the trip enlightening in different ways. For Mischler, it confirmed that he likes to do field work. For McBee, an astronomy major, it turned out to be a close-up look at another scientific field. For Jones, it gave him a first hand view of using GPS and computers in vulcanology. And for Van Boskirk, it gave her insights as to what she will do for her own research project on the island of Dominica, studying another volcano.

"I learned the importance of a site for good data," she said.

Mattioli will return to the island soon to set up the rest of the equipment. Then the researchers can have more immediate access to data, and perhaps even witness events leading up to the next eruption "on-line."