Maddie Sofia, Ph.D.: Volcanoes are amazing
natural wonders.
But there's still so much about them that we don't know.
And that's partially because volcanoes
can be dangerous —
especially for the scientists
trying to study them up close.
So, that's why we're here
at the University at Buffalo's Geohazards Field Station.
So do you guys blow stuff up all the time?
That's your job?
Jim: Yes, we do.
Maddie: Are you going to let me press the buttons?
Jim: Yes.
Maddie: More than 40 scientists
have come from all over the world
to safely study simulated volcanic eruptions.
[Blasts.]
In this case, rapid-fire explosions.
We think about volcanic eruptions as
huge infrequent events.
But there are about 20 active volcanoes
of all sizes erupting on earth at any given time.
In fact, the rapid-fire eruptions
we're going to study today
are far more common than the giant eruptions
you see in the news.
The things the scientists learn here
will help them when they're at the site of a real volcano.
Alison Graettinger: The technique is
you stick the pipe in the hole,
and then you shake it.
And stuff will come out of it 'cause it's a vacuum.
Sorry, I don't know how to ...
Maddie: Did you just explain to me
how a vacuum worked?
That's Dr. Alison Graettigner.
She's traveled the world studying volcanoes,
and she'll be our guide to this volcano summer camp.
So you basically can be out here digging and playing
and not grow up,
but you're a Ph.D. scientist and your mom's proud.
Alison: Yeah.
My mom's got a good story.
Somebody keeps asking,
"How do you raise a volcanologist?"
She goes, "You don't, you just get out of their way."
[Laughter.]
Maddie: What are we looking at right now?
Alison: This whole field station
is being set up for a series of experiments.
Pink is always 90 degrees, yes.
So this is pink. That will be orange.
We've got lots of different teams.
So we have team acoustics.
So they're interested in infrasound,
so that's just below human hearing.
And then related to team infrasound, we've got seismic.
Greg Waite: Well, we're digging a trench
with three different levels to bury seismometers
at three different depths.
So when the blast occurs,
we can study the effects of how that blast wave,
traveling through the air,
propagates down into the ground.
Maddie: Awesome.
When some of that wave hits the ground,
it turns into seismic waves that
Greg can measure.
His team can use those measurements to
determine how much energy was
in the initial sound wave.
And that's important because it lets them estimate
the size of the eruption.
They can also predict how high the column
of debris and gas that flies from the volcano,
called the ash plume, will reach,
and how far it could travel.
When Kilauea erupted last year,
the ash plume reached 30,000 feet.
Larger eruptions have produced ash plumes
that reach hundreds of thousands of feet,
all the way up into the stratosphere.
Alison: And then we have the team on the roof.
And they're very interested in capturing the explosions in high speed,
as well as we're going to have thermal infrared
and we're going to have lots of 4k videos.
Ariana Soldati: So this is a 3-D, 360 camera.
It can take videos all around.
And then there's two from each side,
instead of just one like most 360 cameras
And this is like your eyes,
so it allows you to get a
perception of the third dimension.
Maddie: Oh, perception of the third dimension.
Maddie: What are you hoping in your experiments here,
what are you hoping to learn from this?
Alison: So I mainly focus on the deposits,
which is all the debris that came out
of the hole when we blew it up.
Maddie: It's pretty important to know how far stuff's gonna fly and where.
Alison: Right. How much? How far?
Maddie: Right.
Alison: That's the short story of what I want to know.
So we need to spray paint our ballistics.
Maddie: Mmm-hmm.
Alison: Which is really just our pingpong balls.
Maddie: Hey, do you gotta have volcanologist hands
to get this thing off? Uhh.
Alison: Pinchy, pinchy.
[Pop.]
Maddie: We color coded the pingpong balls
and buried them at various depths
before the explosion.
You're gonna do a lot of science out there.
P4G, second ball in the hole.
Nailed it.
The black and white high-speed camera
allows them to track individual pingpong balls
during the rapid-fire explosions.
And that helps Alison figure out which blast
kicked up the deepest dirt.
They can even tell how fast some of the pingpong balls
are moving, and how far they might fly.
[Boom]
Accurate predictions of how much debris a volcano will spew
and how far the debris will travel is essential.
It's how we decide how close to volcanoes people can live,
and what areas should be evacuated in the case of an eruption.
What motivates you to come out here and dig holes,
and bury pingpong balls and all this stuff?
What's in it for you?
Alison: Any volcanologist's motivation is ultimately
to help us do better for future crisis.
Even if we're like, "I'm worrying about this pongpong ball
for my experiment back here."
And so some of these teams are gonna be deploying
this same equipment at an active volcano.
And they're gonna make sure their measurements are the best they can be
because of their time here.
Maddie: Nailed it.
[Hammer. Vacuuming.]
How do I look? 100% good?
Now that all the instruments are in place,
it is time to blow stuff up.
We've set up four different explosions,
each consisting of six blasts.
Maddie: Are you going to let me press the buttons?
Jim: Yes.
You hit "A" and "D" at the same time.
When I say, "Fire in the hole," that's what you press.
Maddie: You go, "Fire in the hole," and I go "A" and "D" same time.
Jim: Yep.
Maddie: Eeee.
Jim: Five, four, three, two, one.
Fire in the hole.
[Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.]
[High-five clap.]
Maddie: Here we go!
Let's do it again!
[Air horn blasts.]
Jim: Fire in the hole.
[Boom. Boom. Boom.]
Alison: Yeah.
That was a good one.
Maddie: So what did you guys learn
from the, you know, preliminary stuff?
Alison: So one of the first things I'm always curious about
is how far the farthest thing flew.
The farthest thing went in the direction we anticipated,
but there was more stuff that flew sideways
than I expected.
Maddie: A little "Volcano Summer Camp" surprise.
Alison: It's good. It's a good sign.
Maddie: Yeah.
Alison: Right? Cause if I anticipated everything,
why did I do the test? It's boring.
Maddie: Sure.
Alison: So we're testing things. We want to learn something.
And when we're wrong sometimes,
that's the best way to learn.
Hey, I found a pink ball!
Maddie: That one was the deepest.
Alison: Alright, what's our bingo code?
Maddie: Who has P4F?
Alison: You do.
Maddie: P4F. It's mine!
[Boom. Boom. Boom]
Alison and Maddie: Yeahhhhh.
[High five clap.]