Looking into lava

The secrets of climate change and the formation of giant lava deposits on Mars may soon be revealed to a team investigating lava flows from Mount Etna, using sensing technology developed for industrial use.

Harry Pinkerton, Professor of Physical Volcanology and Head of Environmental Science at the University of Lancaster analyses the rheological properties of molten lava using equipment he has developed based on a torque sensor from by Sensor Technology.

Sensing and data capture is done through a robust Torqsense unit, so sensitive that it detects any slight change in dynamics.

The non-contact transducer uses Surface Acoustic Waves to create frequency dependent strain gauges to measure the change in resonant frequency.