Prof. George Bergantz and its team at the Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington, are simulating volcanic eruptions and ash plumes using the MFiX-DEM code. The advantage of DEM is that the movement of each crystal inside of the volcano can be tracked. The objective is to better understand what is happening inside a magma chamber and correlate the mechanics inside the volcano with outside observations. This will lead with improved predictions of when a volcano may erupt and will better prepare nearby population response to such event. Team members include Prof. George Bergantz and Jillian Schleicher (University of Washington) and Alain Burgisser (University of Savoy Mont Blanc, France).
Please follow this link to see some animations highlighting Prof. Bergantz work.
