{"id":65278,"date":"2010-01-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-grad-student-spends-year-in-australian-lab-to-examine-volcanism-evolution-of-earth\/"},"modified":"2010-01-04T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-01-04T00:00:00","slug":"uri-grad-student-spends-year-in-australian-lab-to-examine-volcanism-evolution-of-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2010\/01\/uri-grad-student-spends-year-in-australian-lab-to-examine-volcanism-evolution-of-earth\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 grad student spends year in Australian lab to examine volcanism, evolution of Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tNewport resident uses corn syrup to simulate molten rock<\/p>\n


\n\tNARRAGANSETT, R.I \u2013 January 4, 2010 \u2013 Lava lamps, corn syrup and flowing honey aren\u2019t the typical scientific terms used when discussing the evolution of the earth, but that\u2019s how Newport resident Kelsey Druken explains her research. A doctoral student at the 溏心vlog免费B站 Graduate School of Oceanography, she has just returned from presenting the first results of her research at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cI\u2019m studying fluid motion and how it applies to earth science. I\u2019m looking at how the inside of the earth evolves over time,\u201d said Druken, who earned an undergraduate degree in physics from 溏心vlog免费B站 in 2006.<\/p>\n


\n\tThe main focus of Druken\u2019s research is subduction zones \u2013 sites on the seafloor where tectonic plates have collided, forcing one plate beneath the other.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cWhen one plate sinks back into the earth, it generates flow,\u201d she explained. \u201cOver millions of years, it looks like honey flowing, sort of like the movement of glaciers over thousands of years, but this is over millions of years. The way the flow moves tells us where we may have volcanoes.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tBecause it is impossible to directly observe the molten flows she seeks to understand, Druken spent a year at the Australian National University, the site of one of the world\u2019s best laboratories for studying geophysical fluid dynamics.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cMy style of research is to go into a lab and try to recreate plate motions and study the flows that they generate,\u201d she said. \u201cSo I use corn syrup in a big tank in Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tBuilt by 溏心vlog免费B站 Professor Christopher Kincaid and Australian colleagues in 2002, the tank of corn syrup allows researchers to examine the three-dimensional motions caused by the collisions of tectonic plates at subduction zones. While in Australia, Druken ran a series of experiments to visualize the patterns that result from the flowing corn syrup.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cThese patterns are important, like tidal patterns or currents in the ocean,\u201d she said. \u201cDifferent patterns mean different things. I was looking at how different patterns in the flow are represented at the surface in volcanism.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tIn one experiment, she simulated a hot plume of magma rising from the earth\u2019s mantle, the same kind of flow that created the Hawaiian Islands, which she described as looking like \u201ca plume rising in a lava lamp.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tThe research she reported on at the American Geophysical Union meeting related to flows that are occurring beneath the seafloor of the southwest Pacific Ocean and near the Samoan Islands.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s right next to this plate that\u2019s sinking into the earth and generating a very different flow field,\u201d Druken said. \u201cWe conducted the first laboratory experiment that looks at how a plume interacts with a subducting plate. That\u2019s brand new.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tNow that she is back from Australia, Druken says she will probably spend the next 18 months analyzing the data from her experiments and writing her dissertation. Then she hopes to get a post-doctoral fellowship to continue her research in Australia.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cThe culture in Australia is so laid back and toned down a bit compared to here. They have a little more appreciation for lifestyle there, and yet they still produce great work,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n


\n\tDuring her first visit Down Under, she traveled extensively, including trips to the Great Barrier Reef and the forests of Tasmania, as well as a sailing trip around the Sydney area. But her Rhode Island and 溏心vlog免费B站 roots are deep \u2013 she has four younger sisters, all of whom are either enrolled at 溏心vlog免费B站, recently graduated, or on their way.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cWe have a big family of girls, and we all love 溏心vlog免费B站,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s been a great school for us.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Newport resident uses corn syrup to simulate molten rock NARRAGANSETT, R.I \u2013 January 4, 2010 \u2013 Lava lamps, corn syrup and flowing honey aren\u2019t the typical scientific terms used when discussing the evolution of the earth, but that\u2019s how Newport resident Kelsey Druken explains her research. A doctoral student at the University of Rhode […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65278\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}