New at Erratics: Bubbling up

Your friendly Highly Allochthonous bloggers have already treated you to unconformicakes and edible debris flows today; now, if you head over to Earth Science Erratics, new contributors Kathy Cashman and Alison Rust present a fascinating discussion of the role of gas bubbles in volcanism and…bread!

Understanding bubble formation and migration is particularly critical for understanding volcano behavior, where gas expansion provides the primary driving force for volcanic eruptions. However, bubble behavior also affects magma chamber processes and ore deposit formation. The physical properties of bubbles that make them such effective drivers of magma motion are their buoyancy, their volume sensitivity to pressure and temperature, and their deformability, properties that are easily explored in the kitchen. Here we start our exploration of cooking analogies with bread, where the revival of artisan breads provides a wide array of bread textures and techniques.

Go and read, and if you’re anything like me, you’ll learn as much about the science of breadmaking as you do about volcanic bombs.

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