UMD Planetary Volcanism Laboratory

Welcome to the University of Maryland Planetary Volcanism Laboratory!

We study volcanoes on Earth and beyond. 

Research Questions

• Where did Earth's water come from?

• What factors control volcanic eruptive style on the Earth and other planetary bodies?

• How fast does magma cool within the volcanic conduit? How fast does magma rise from source to surface?

• Can we link petrologic markers of magma ascent to the seismic record at active volcanoes?

Research Keywords

• Volatiles

• Silicate melts

• Olivine

• Diffusion

• Moon

• Melt inclusions

• Conduit processes

News

June 2025

• Congratulations to Dr. Liam Peterson on the acceptance of his FIFTH first-author paper from his PhD! Liam's paper experimentally constrains the partition coefficient for water between olivine and melt at pressures from 10 - 200 MPa. He finds that the partition coefficient for HYDROXYL (OH) between olivine and melt is constant, so the partition coefficient for water (H2O) is controlled by the relative amount of OH and molecular water in the melt. Look out for this paper in American Mineralogist!

April 2025

• Congratulations to Liam on the publication of his latest paper about water and fluorine in the Erg Cech 002 parent body! Liam's paper provides "a first-order reconstruction of the EC 002 parent body H2O (∼7– 200 µg/g H2O) and F (∼0.44– 2.4 µg/g  F) contents, which are depleted relative to chondrites and the bulk Earth. This requires the first generation(s) of planetesimals to have either accreted from volatile-poor materials or undergone extensive volatile loss, supporting the idea that Earth acquired its H2O budget from thermally primitive materials."

September 2024

• Congratulations to Silvia on the publication of her giant paper in Journal of Petrology! "Crystals and Melt Inclusions Record Deep Storage of Superhydrous Magma Prior to the Largest Known Eruption of Cerro Machín Volcano, Colombia" Silvia reports the first direct measurements of volatiles for the water-rich Cerro Machin system. She measured water in plagioclase crystals and developed a method to use water in plagioclase to estimate pre-eruptive magmatic water concentrations. Silvia did a vast amount of technically challenging work for this project!

June 2024

• The first UMD Volcano Camp was a blast! Check out pictures and results from our first camp on the website!

April 2024

• The first UMD Volcano Camp will run this June 24th - 28th! We will be hosting local high school students and Terrapin Teachers for a week of volcano activities and hands-on research. Thanks to NSF CAREER for support.

March 2024

• Euan's paper about 3D diffusion of water in melt inclusion-bearing olivine phenocrysts has just been published in G-cubed. Congratulations Euan! 

• Congratulations to Dr. Liam Peterson on his PhD graduation and his new position as a postdoc at WHOI! We will miss you Liam!

February 2024

• Liam just published his third first-author paper! He studied the H content of acapulcoite-lodranite clan meteorites. These meteorites are special because they capture the transition from unmelted nebular sediments to melted planetesimals. Read more here!

August 2023

• Congratulations to Liam on his latest paper in EPSL about the H content of aubrites!

July 2023

• Incredible graduate students Sumedha Desikamani and Cosmo Varah-Sikes have been selected for NASA FINESST awards! Congratulations Cosmo and Sumedha!!! 

March 2023

• New paper alert: Degassing of early-formed planetesimals restricted water delivery to Earth, published in Nature. 

January 2023

• Megan has received a National Science Foundation CAREER award! We are excited to develop a water-in-feldspar crystal clock, and we look forward to meeting local high school students for an annual Volcano Summer School!

December 2022

• Congratulations to Silvia on her successful Master's defense! We will miss you Silvia!

November 2022

• Liam's paper about the water content of the ureilite parent body has been published in GCA! The paper is available here.

August 2022

• New graduate students Sumedha Desikamani and Kathy Stepien have arrived on campus - welcome! Sumedha will be constraining water partitioning and diffusion behavior in plagioclase, and Kathy will be working with Sarah Penniston-Dorland and me to measure water in garnet. 

• Undergraduate Researcher MaKayla Etheredge has joined the University of Oregon as a graduate student in volcanology - congratulations MaKayla!

September 2021

• Liam's NASA proposal has been selected for funding! Liam is now a Future Investigator in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology. He will use this three-year award to study the origin of inner solar system volatiles. CONGRATULATIONS LIAM!!!

August 2021

• New graduate students Kyle Kim and Cosmo Varah-Sikes have arrived on campus - welcome! Kyle will be working on magma ascent at Cinder Cone (Lassen Volcanic National Park) and Cosmo will be working with Jessica Sunshine and me on some mysterious spinel-rich lunar volcanic deposits.

January 2021

• New graduate student Silvia Castilla Montagut has arrived in College Park - welcome Silvia! 

• Liam has been selected to receive an Outstanding Graduate Assistant Award - congratulations Liam! 

August 2020

• New paper accepted in Frontiers about magma pressure-temperature-time paths during mafic explosive eruptions. Make sure to check out the rest of the 'crystal archives of magmatic processes' collection!

June 2020

• Funded MS / PhD position available to study temporal changes in magma decompression rate at Cinder Cone, Lassen Volcanic National Park, CA. Contact Megan (newcombe@umd.edu) for more information!

May 2020

• Liam has been awarded a GSA Graduate Student Research Grant. Congratulations, Liam!

March 2020

• The iN10MX FTIR has arrived! 

September 2019

• The Planetary Volcanism Lab is under construction! Microscopes have arrived and we're ready to start polishing olivine.

August 2019

• Megan and Euan are both presenting at Goldschmidt - check out sessions 06k and 02a!

January 2019

• Goldschmidt abstract submission is open! Check out session 06j: "Do Magmatic Systems Play by our Rules? Translating from an Equilibrium Rulebook into a Kinetic Playbook". We will be discussing disequilibrium processes in magmatic systems, including diffusion chronometry (crystal clocks). Deadline is 31st March.

August 2018

• AGU abstracts are due 1st August! Please consider submitting your abstract to session V039: "The Time is Ripe: Advancements of Diffusion Chronometry in Igneous and Metamorphic Systems".

• Megan is an invited speaker at the upcoming pre-Goldschmidt workshop about melt inclusions.

June 2018

• Megan was an invited speaker at the PACROFI conference at Rice University.