When glasses form they freeze in a record of how quickly they have cooled.
Glasses formed in volcanic eruptions therefore preserve key information about the
timescale of volcanic processes, which we will decipher using state-of-the-art new
thermal analysis equipment called a differential scanning calorimeter. This technique will be applied to a variety of volcanoes, including the recently-active Cordon Caulle in Chile and ancient, long-extinct volcanoes in Scotland.