Julia Crummy
Postgraduate Student
Telephone number:
+44(0) 113 34
35658
Email address: eejmc@leeds.ac.uk
Room: 8.152
Biography
Qualifications
BSc Hons Geoscience, University of Aberdeen
Project Title
The petrological and geochemical evolution of North America's most active volcano: Volcan de Colima, Mexico
Supervisors
Dr Ivan Savaov, Dr Daniel Morgan, Prof Marjorie Wilson & Sue Loughlin1 (1British Geological Survey)
Funding
NERC and BUFI CASE study award
Start Date
1st September 2009
Project Outline
The aim of my project is to study the petrology and geochemistry of prehistoric eruption deposits from Volcan de Colima in order to establish the evolution of the magmatic system and investigate any patterns in the behaviour of the volcano over more than 30,000 years. Based on field and laboratory analyses, key eruption units will be characterised in terms of erupted volume and mass eruption rate through granulometry studies and tephra dispersion modelling.
Geochemical and petrological analyses of the Holocene and Pleistocene tephra can be used as a monitoring tool by comparing the analyses with lava and ash samples from more recent erupted materials, as sudden changes in the magma composition may signal the fast arrival of new magma batches that are usually followed by explosive episodes. New tephra dispersion modelling based on extensive field findings and measurements has strong implications for future hazard predication models and the design of up to date evacuation maps/routes.