Monday, January 24, 2011

New Geological Hazards Facility

A new geologic hazards facility at the University of Buffalo is going to be built within the next decade in order to study volcanic activity.  The facility is still in the planning stages at this point.  One of the first areas that the facility plans to study is on volcanic processes to help interpret the geologic record.  The study of the formation of craters and the structures beneath them could prove to yield economic resources.  Diamonds are found underneath certain types of craters!!! 

Research would also be done on pyroclastic flows.  These flows are not completely understood because the flows are explosive and unpredictable in nature.  Measurements are hard to take as a result.  The facility would study these flows with an experimental field station. 

There will be an emphasis on the study of volcanoes because there is a gap between other geological hazards experimentally.  The facility plans to broaden to other geological hazards.

4 comments:

  1. How exactly is the research going to be done since the flows are unpredictable. That would be very interesting to find out or are they keeping that a under wraps tell the facility is built.

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  2. Yep, I agree. This is a great post and a good start, but we need a little more information for us lay folks. Tell us more about what pyroclastic flows are (maybe a separate post on this?). Give us a picture of where the facility might be or at least of the university. And explain the link to resource extraction better. A great start--just try to think like a layperson!

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  3. I am interest to see what studies are actually going to be done and the information and conclusions they come up with. If you are going to talk more about the economic resources(such as Diamonds) you might want to do some research about Kimberlites and Lamproites and have your blog link to a paper about them.

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  4. I'm still waiting for the day that diamonds are no longer valued like they are. They are just pieces of carbon and yet people have to die in under developed countries in order for some chick to get one on her finger. It is a sad sad world.

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