Isobel Houghton

Isobel Houghton  (Electrical Engineering ), co-applicant Karen Aplin ( Physics, Oxford) and Keri Nicoll (Meteorology, Reading) have been successful in receiving funding for this project through the Cabot Institute's annual Open Call 2012/2013.  Here Isobel explains what the project is about.

Volcanic plumes are associated with electrical phenomena, such as volcanic lightning and electric field perturbations.

Triboelectric (frictional) charging is one mechanism associated with charging of volcanic plumes. Previous work has shown that triboelectric charging in systems of particles of identical materials can be attributed to a distribution of particle sizes. 

This scoping project will use existing samples of volcanic ash from the recent Eyjafjallajokull and Grimsvotn eruptions and modify existing experimental apparatus located at the University of Oxford to measure the electrical charge generated as ash samples fall under gravity.

Isolating different size fractions using a sieving technique will allow us to investigate the charging behaviour of different size fractions and distributions.