Volcanic bombs at Montaña Colorada in Tinajo, Lanzarote, Canary Islands
In order to create a less dangerous natural experiment, Erika Rader and her colleagues have been testing different methods of making “spatter bombs” to understand volcanic eruption conditions. Spatter bombs are blobs of lava ejected during a volcanic eruption, or as Rader affectionately calls them, “volcanic loogies.” Specific eruption conditions are required for spatter bombs to form in preference to flowing lava. So, Rader and her team are creating their own spatter bombs in an effort to determine the conditions under which they are created. What they learn will be valuable for scientists studying spatter bombs they find in the field to determine the eruptive characteristics of their source volcano.