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Distinguished Speaker Seminar
In light of the growing importance of the interdisciplinary field of cyber-enabled discovery and
innovation, the Institute for CyberScience is sponsoring this speaker series. Prominent experts are
scheduled to present talks on campus throughout the academic year. The goal is to explore the
frontiers of this intrinsically interdisciplinary research area of cyberscience and to bring the diverse
community of Penn State researchers together around new and emergent themes.
“Investigating lava rheology using experiments, numerical
models and field observations”
Dr. Einat Lev, Assistant Research Professor
Date: Wednesday, April 1st
Time: From 1:25pm – To 2:15pm
Location: 541 Deike
Abstract: Lava is one of the most common geologic fluids, covering vast areas of the Earth, Moon
and other planets. Lava flows can help us understand magmatic processes, eruptions, and crust
formation, as well as provide record of ancient environments and climate. Of course, lava flows also
constitute a serious natural hazard, as demonstrated by recent events in Hawaii and Iceland. I begin
the talk by addressing one important parameter in lava behavior ― the lava viscosity ― and new
ways to estimate it for active flows and domes. I then discuss new tools for investigating lava channel
networks, and the response of lava to topography and obstacles. Our journey in lava kingdom
continues as we will dive into lava lakes, where I show correlations between circulation vigor, lake
level, gas emissions, and microseismicity. I conclude by looking, quite closely, at the interaction of
lava with ice and water. I present results from numerical models, video analysis, and aerial
photography.
Biography: Enter Biography Here
Einat Lev is an assistant research professor at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth
Observatory. Einat received her B.Sc. in Geophysics and Computer Science from Tel Aviv University,
and her PhD in Geophysics from MIT.
The Institute for CyberScience is a part of the Office of the Vice President for Research
The Center for Computational Mathematics and Applications, is part of the Department of
Mathematics in the Eberly College of Science