Summary: Volcanoes are large, dynamic features of our planet. And yet, we often turn to small, static experiments to better understand them. I will take you from a remote area in the Chilean Andes, full of lava and pumice from South America's largest historical eruptions, to experimental research labs where these volcanic rocks are re-melted and re-cooled in special furnaces. The mineral types, shapes, and chemical compositions that form from these experimental magmas give us a "key" to interpret what we see in the erupted rocks. In this talk, I will show you exactly how that key works and what it means for Volcán Quizapu, currently ranked as the 10th most dangerous volcanic system in all of Chile.

Biography: Dr. First is an Assistant Professor of Geology at Macalester College. She hails from Atlanta, GA and holds Bachelor's degrees in Geology and French from the University of Georgia. She earned a Ph.D. at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, studying magmas in an experimental research lab and seeing volcanoes in person whenever she could. Postdocs at Brown and Cornell focused even further from home, on lunar rocks and exoplanets. Now settled at Macalester, she will be setting up her own experimental lab to learn about melting, crystallization, diffusion, and other fundamental processes that govern the behavior of magmas on Earth and other planets. She is also excited to be teaching several courses, including Mineralogy and Volcanoes.