ENHANCING STUDENT UNDERSTANDING OF VOLCANIC PROCESSES: ONE PLANET SIMPLY ISN'T ENOUGH!

Volcanological processes have helped shape the existing surfaces of nearly every solar system object studied carefully to date, and teaching students about volcanism—whether in an introductory setting, an advanced course like petrology, or via a dedicated specialty course—is an important component of most undergraduate programs. Because the outcome of an eruption depends in part upon the environmental conditions (e.g., gravity, temperature, pressure) in which it occurs, and because each major solar system object is characterized by a different combination of environmental conditions, volcanology provides a natural venue within which integrated use of planetary datasets can enhance the depth and breadth of the physical insights and critical thinking skills we seek to have our students develop. To illustrate the utility of planetary data when learning about volcanology, I will present two examples used in courses at Pomona College. The first is an introductory exercise that employs data gathered from a site on Earth (in our case during a field trip to Amboy Crater) and simple equations for lava thickness and flow velocity to consider how the Amboy Crater lava field would appear had an identical eruption occurred on the Moon or Mars. One benefit of this exercise is that it helps challenge student thinking about how volcanic processes and landform characteristics are linked. The second example illustrates how the outcome from thought experiments about cinder cone formation on the Earth, Moon and Mars, designed to help students predict what factors exert a major influence on cone morphology, can be tested using numerical techniques made accessible via readily available freeware. Used together, the pair of exercises can be performed in a 50 minute class period. They provide a fun yet powerful way to illustrate how physical intuition, analytical equations and numerical methods can all be used, in combination with data from different solar system bodies, to enhance our understanding of physical volcanism.