MICHAEL MANGA

Neat stuff in the Field

Mono and Inyo domes, August 2011

This trip is part of a 3 year NSF-funded project with Jim Gardner (Univ Texas) to understand how obsidian domes form, from small to big, from crystal-poor to crystal-rich. How fast do they erupt? How to they flow? Do they fragment? What is there connection to explosive eruptions?


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Example of textures.


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More ropy textures.


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Logging the subplinian AD 1340 deposits (these contains CO2 rich obsidian that documents non-equilibrium degassing).


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Spherulites (why do these form? why don't they replace all the glass?).


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Obsidian Dome.


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Ben Andrews of the Smithsonian (middle) collecting oriented obsidian samples.


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Collecting samples on North Coulee (notice people for scale).


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