Dr Carrie Soderman works in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge. Her research investigates how the geochemistry of volcanic rocks links to the processes that are involved in their formation, from their melt source regions in the Earth’s mantle through to transport and crystallisation on their way to the surface. Her PhD work focussed on the application of a relatively new field of high temperature isotope geochemistry, specifically isotopes of elements such as Fe and Mg. These isotopic compositions in volcanic rocks can be used to characterise the presence of recycled crust in the mantle that the volcanic rocks are derived from. Her work ties together modelling the behaviour of these isotopes in the mantle, isotope data collected from rocks from volcanic hotspots such as the Galápagos, and experiments to recreate mantle melting processes at the Earth’s surface.
As part of her fellowship research, Carrie is also applying the same combined modelling and natural data approach to understand the behaviour of rare earth elements in alkaline-silicate rocks. Rare earth elements, which will become vital over the next decades for use in clean energy technologies, are often found in high concentrations in these alkaline volcanic systems, but the processes that lead to their enrichment, from mantle source to crystallisation, are often poorly understood. The application of the modelling approach used during her PhD will allow for investigation of the effects of pressure, temperature, geological setting and magma composition on the behaviour of elements in alkaline-silicate volcanic rocks.
Show All
The dynamics of infectious disease (ID) require fast accurate diagnosis for effective management and treatment. Without affordable, accessible diagnostics, syndromic or presumptive actions are often followed, where positive cases may go undetected in the community, or mistreated due to wrong diagnosis. In many low and middle income countries (LMICs), this undermines effective clinical decision-making and infectious disease containment.
Unsteady effects occur in many natural and technical flows, for example around flapping wings or during aircraft gust encounters. If the unsteadiness is large, the resulting forces can be quite considerable. However, the exact physical mechanisms underlying the generation of unsteady forces are complex and their accurate prediction remains challenging. One strategy is to identify the dominant effects and describe these with simple analytical models, first proposed a hundred years ago. When used successfully, this approach has the advantage that it also gives us a conceptual understanding of unsteady fluid mechanics.
In this lecture I will explain some of these ideas and demonstrate how they can still be useful today. As a practical example, I will show how the forces experienced in a wing-gust encounter can be predicted – and how the predictions can be used to mitigate the gust effects. The lecture will be illustrated with images and videos from simple, canonical, experiments.
Cambridge Philosophical Society17 Mill LaneCambridgeCB2 1RXUnited Kingdom
Office Hours: Monday and Tuesday - 10am-4pm
+44 (0)1223 334743
philosoc@group.cam.ac.uk