Associate professor of geology Tamara Carley (pictured below, far left) has been to Iceland more than a dozen times in the course of her research on volcanoes. But this summer, on her latest voyage, she found herself exploring and learning in new ways, right alongside her students.

As part of her research trip to study subglacial magma systems, sponsored by a National Science Foundation grant awarded in 2022, Carley and her team of students needed to access a remote Icelandic volcano inaccessible by the roads or boats or hiking trails they’re accustomed to using.

The only solution was to take to the skies. Carley and two of her research students, Victoria Andreo ’27 and Maggie Pearce ’27 (pictured below, back left and center), traveled by helicopter—a new experience for the trio—to reach the peak. They were joined by a collaborator and student from Illinois State University. “It was a grand adventure for all of us,” Carley says.

Carley’s research focuses on igneous petrology, a discipline concerned with the behavior of magma bodies and volcanic systems. On this trip, Carley was studying volcanoes that lie underneath Iceland’s largest ice cap, Vatnajökull. Carley, who has spent years considering the complex interactions between volcanic activity and climate change, notes that these systems are now becoming visible due to melting ice and retreating glaciers.

“It’s alarming how much ice loss is happening presently. It’s significant for the volcanic systems, because as you lose ice, you’re releasing pressure on the ground below,” Carley says, explaining the effects are similar to popping a cork. “There’s a hypothesis that significant ice loss might destabilize magmatic systems and cause more eruptions.” As such, geologists like Carley are trying to find creative ways to the world the Lafayette team will have forever.

“It’s transformative to go into these environments and be immersed in the landscapes we’re studying,” Carley says.

Upon returning to Easton, the group brought back samples of volcanic rock to analyze; they are looking for rhyolite, a type of igneous rock that suggests a volcanic system is capable of explosive eruptions. By utilizing tools like the X-ray fluorescence spectrometer in Van Wickle Hall, and the scanning electron microscope in Rockwell Integrated Sciences Center, further research can decipher the rocks’ histories. Carley’s on-campus research group, RUMBLE—Research Unit on Magma, Bubbles, Lava, and Eruptions—worked on sample processing, analysis, mineral separation, and writing conference abstracts.

“I had been part of Dr. Carley’s research group since last semester, which gave me the opportunity to hear about what my peers were researching,” Andreo, a summer EXCEL Scholar, says. “The work they were doing on Iceland’s geology was so incredible, so to be able to see these places in person and put my peers’ research in context was an amazing experience.”

Inviting Lafayette’s undergraduates into the research process is a critical part of scholarship, says Carley: “It’s some of the most important work I can do as an educator. There’s just nothing that can compare to being on the ground in the environment we’re studying. When I’m in Iceland, I can teach about rocks, I can teach about minerals, I can talk about processes, and everything is just laid out in front of us in a way that we try to make very real and very immediate in the classroom.”

Additional collaboration took place with on-campus partners who ensured students were safe within these experiences an ocean away from campus. Carley credits Mary Ellen Jackson and the Lafayette Office of Sponsored Research with advocating for the project, which included helicopter travel, and helping to coordinate insurance, liability, and other logistics.

Carley’s work also complements the College’s study abroad experience: She co-teaches GEOL 180: Iceland: Geology and Natural History of a Young Island, an interim session during the summer that explores the geological processes of the country. She also co-teaches interim classes on the flanks of volcanoes in New Zealand (GEOL 140) and Italy (INDS 201).

The value of a global perspective, echoing in many ways the mission of the Marquis de Lafayette’s journey to America and beyond, is an essential part of Carley’s teaching: “There’s nothing that compares with being out in the world.”