The Story Behind The Experiment

The ideas and theories behind the experiment were taken from two papers written by Stephen Blake and Gregory N. Ivey. From these papers, Dr. J.K. Russell devised a simple experiment that would clearly show the processes that might occur within a single stratified chamber. Patty Tremblay, a undergraduate assistant refined Dr. Russell's ideas and designed a series of experiments, including the one you have just watched. The full video of this research includes 8 separate experiments. By showing this video in class, Dr. J.K. Russell found that the students were able to grasp the concepts of denisity and viscosity contrasts and visualize how these basic physical properties played an important role in magma mixing.

Blake, S. and Ivey, G.N., 1986. Magma-mixing and the dynamics of withdrawal from stratified reservoirs. J. Volcanol. Res., 27 : 153-178
Blake, S. and Ivey, G.N., 1986. Density and viscosity gradients in zoned magma chmbers, and their influence on withdrawal dynamics. J. Volcanol. Res., 30 : 201-230

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