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The UAF Experimental Petrology Lab provides a state of the art research facility for studying magmatic processes at high temperatures and pressures. The Lab houses the following equipment:

• Rockland Research piston-cylinder apparatus capable of up to ~1 GPa pressure, and ~2000 C temperatures. It is typically used for phase equilibria experiments recreating magma crystallization and equilibriation processes in the deep crust to shallow upper mantle.
• 1 Atmosphere Gas Mixing furnace: This apparatus is used for crystallization and melting experiments under controlled oxygen fugacity conditions at atmospheric pressures. The apparatus is built using a DelTech vertical tube furnace and run using CO₂-H₂ gas mixtures to control fugacity.
• 4 hydrothermal cold-seal pressure vessel apparati: Waspaloy alloy pressure vessels are used for phase equilibria studies at pressures to 4 kbar and temperatures to 880 C
• 4 rapid-quench capable cold-seal pressure vessel apparati: The cold-seal apparati are fitted with a special extension that allows rapid quenching against the water-cooled pressure seal, using a magnet controlled sample holder. These apparati allow for crystallization and vesiculation kinetics studies with rapid quenching.
• 2 TZM/MHC alloy cold-seal apparati: DelTech furnaces are paired with Titanium-Molybdenum-Zirconium or Molybdenum-Hafnium-Carbide pressure vessels for higher temperature phase equilibria and kinetics studies. The MHC vessels are capable of temperatures up to ~1200 C at pressures to 2 kbar.

Current research projects include:

Constraining magma storage conditions and ascent rates before and during the 2006 eruption of Augustine Volcano, ³ÉÈËӰƬ (PhD student Sarah Henton)

Vesiculation and crystallization kinetics studies of basaltic andesite magmas and implications for violent strombolian eruption mechanisms (PhD student Amanda Lindoo)

For more information

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Faculty Researchers

Jessica Larsen
Pavel Izbekov

Student Researchers