The Project

Lava domes are massive and volatile-poor extrusion complexes of highly viscous magma, often emplaced in a volcano summit crater region. Lava domes may intermittently destabilize, producing rock falls and pyroclastic flows, some of the most common hazards at volcanoes.

As these dome collapses are often initiated on the flanks of a lava dome, close observations of the growth and spread of the lava dome flanks are crucial. VOLCAPSE combines novel satellite radar technologies together with photogrammetry methods to monitor lava domes, and develops models for understanding the processes acting at explosive volcanoes.

Through modelling the aim is to improve understanding of the deformation style of the dome and the stress changes within and beneath.