STONE

STONE

The processes of degassing and vesiculation, cooling and crystallisation, as well as the transport processes (of matter and heat) at the micro- and macro-scale, which occur during the ascent of a magma in an eruptive conduct and, more in particular during the emplacement of gravity-driven degassed lava flows, are quite similar to those occurring during melting and sintering in the glass, ceramic and metallurgical industries. The similarity lies not only in the common occurrence of silicate melts and glasses, but also in the techniques, technologies and operational protocols that are used to estimate the chemical and chemical-physical properties relevant for the description of the processes mentioned above. Both volcanological and ceramic disciplines benefit from the use of complementary technologies, capable of monitoring the multiphase evolution at high temperature of those degassed products that derive from lava flow emplacement dynamics or from the firing stage of ceramic products. Hence, improving the operative tools and protocols to investigate the evolution, during cooling and heating, of the physical and thermodynamic properties of multicomponent and multiphase silicate melts is of critical importance for understanding the high temperature processes associated to both magmatic and volcanic activities and glass and ceramic production.

This project aims at providing a new multifaceted approach, which will translate in the development of new operative routines, for near-real-time monitoring of the above-mentioned processes relevant to lava flow emplacement and ceramic production.

This will be accomplished by implementing always more advanced technologies which will allow us to provide real-time actions to predict and mitigate, in particular, the volcanic hazard associated with the emplacement of degassed lava flows as well as to control what is happening to ceramic bodies directly inside the kiln. The advantages span from the relationship between nature and society, to quality control and time/energy saving in ceramic production.

This project aims at: 1) implementing a new facility capable of monitoring, in near-real-time, the onset and the evolution of the high temperature crystallisation and the residual liquid matrix for multiphase silicate melts, representative of lava samples and ceramic bodies, also during measuring stages; 2) measuring and modelling their rheological properties with varying thermal and deformation regimes.

PRIN Project 2022, funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU.

Associated investigator CNR: Dr. Michele Dondi (CNR-ISSMC)

Principal Investigator:  Dr. Daniele Giordano (University of Torino, Department of Earth Sciences)

Participants: Dr. Danilo Bersani (University of Parma) and Dr: Sonia La Felice (CNR-IGG)

Budget: 277.259 Euro

Start date: 28 September 2023

Duration: 24 months