Our group’s work concerns volcanic eruption mechanisms and associated hazards with special emphasis on transit behaviour of magma and emergence during an eruption.  We try to decipher these key aspects of a volcanic eruption:  1) the origin of the melt in the shallow crust, 2) how magma ascends to the surface, 3) feedbacks between flow and deformation behaviour of magma and the way it degasses, and 4) why volcanoes exhibit very different eruption styles (e.g., explosive and effusive) within a single eruptive event.  To tackle these and other questions, we make measurements on natural volcanic rocks and produce features in experiments designed to replicate the high T-P environment of a volcano.  In this we he and aims to experimentally reproduce, or “reverse engineer” key features in volcanic rocks to learn about where they come from.