Research Interests

I use a combination of fieldwork, laboratory experiments, and thermodynamic modeling to better understand the inner workings of crustal volcanic systems. I am particularly interested in answering questions about how volcanic volatiles (H2O, CO2, S, F, Cl) cycle within the Earth and other planets and how a combination of magma crystallization, degassing, and chemical evolution leads to volcanic eruption. Volcanoes are notorious emitters of gases, many of which can have large impacts on Earth’s atmosphere and climate. The magmatic plumbing systems — the networks of magma “pipes” and chambers — that exist beneath volcanoes are the pathways through which such gases exsolve, evolve, and ultimately are transferred from mantle to surface.

I use a combination of techniques to study the inner workings of magmatic systems.

Experimental petrology techniques to recreate miniature magma chambers in the lab: In this way, we can gain insight into the subterranean processes driving volcanic activity directly observed at the Earth’s surface.	Analytical petrology to characterize rock samples: Igneous rocks record the histories of magma formation, crystallization, degassing, and more. I use geochemical analysis to unlock the mysteries stored within the rocks I study.

In situ and satellite remote sensing to measure volcanic degassing: In order to link subsurface to surface degassing, I utilize in situ volcanic remote sensing techniques (DOAS, UV Cameras, OP-FTIR, solar photometery) and satellite remote sensing (OMI and ALI instruments) to measure SO₂ and other gas species emitted from active volcanoes.	Thermodynamic modeling: Thermodynamics is the magical math that brings all of my interests together. Thermodynamics can be used to model crystallization and degassing processes within volcanic systems and can be used to constrain total volatile budgets of volcanoes.

Peer Reviewed Publications

Google Scholar Profile

2023

18. Gallo RI, Ort MH, Iacovino K, Silleni A, Smith V, Giordano G, Isaia R, Boro J (2023) Reconciling complex stratigraphic frameworks reveals temporally and geographically variable depositional patterns of the Campanian Ignimbrite. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, https://doi.org/10.1130/GES02651.1

17. Iacovino K, McCubbin FM, Vander Kaaden KE, Clark J, Wittmann A, Jakubek RS, Moore GM, Fries MD, Archer D, Boyce JW (2023) Carbon as a key driver of super-reduced explosive volcanism on Mercury: Evidence from graphite-melt smelting experiments. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, doi: 10.1016/j.epsl.2022.117908

16. Righter K, Butterworth A, Gainsforth Z, Jilly-Rehak J, Roychoudhury S, Iacovino K, Rowland R, Erickson T, Pando K, Ross DK, Prendergast D, Westphal A (2023) Oxygen fugacity buffering in high pressure solid media assemblies from IW-6.5 to IW+4.5 and application to the V K-edge oxybarometer. American Mineralogist, doi: 10.2138/am-2022-8301

2022

15. Wadsworth FB, Llewellin EW, Castro JM, Tuffen H, Schipper CI, Gardner JE, Foster A, Vasseur J, Damby DE, McIntosh IM, Boettcher S, Unwin HE, Heap MJ, Farquharson JI, Dingwell DB, Iacovino K, Paisley R, Jones C, Whattam J (2022) A reappraisal of explosive-effusive silicic eruption dynamics: syn-eruptive assembly of lava from the products of cryptic fragmentation. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, doi: 10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2022.107672

14. Wieser PE, Iacovino K, Moore GM, Matthews S, Allison CM (2022) VESIcal Part II: A critical approach to volatile solubility modeling using an open-source Python3 engine. Earth and Space Science, doi: 10.1029/2021EA001932

2021

13. Iacovino K, Matthews S, Wieser PE, Moore GM, Bégué F (2021) VESIcal Part I: An open-source thermodynamic model engine for mixed volatile (H2O-CO2) solubility in silicate melts. Earth and Space Science. doi: 10.1029/2020EA001584

12. Wieser PE, Lamadrid H, Maclenna J, Edmonds M, Matthews S, Iacovino K, Jenner F, Gansecki C, Trusdell F, Lee L, Ilyinskaya E (2021) Reconstructing magma storage depths for the 2018 Kilauean eruption form melt inclusion CO₂ contents: The importance of vapor bubbles. G3. doi: 10.1029/2020GC009364

2020

11. Iacovino K, Guild MR, Till CB (2020) Aqueous fluids are effective oxidizing agents of the mantle in subduction zones, Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology. doi: 10.1007/s00410-020-1673-4

10. Edmonds M, Tutolo B, Iacovino K, Moussallam Y (2020) Magmatic carbon outgassing and uptake of CO2 by alkaline waters, American Mineralogist. doi: 10.2138/am-2020-6986CCBY.

2019

9. Ojha L, Karunatillake S, Iacovino K (2019) Atmospheric injection of sulfur from the Medusae Fossae forming events, Planetary and Space Science. doi: 10.1016/j.pss.2019.104734.

8. Iacovino K, Till CB (2019) DensityX: A program for calculating the densities of magmatic liquids up to 1,627 °C and 30 kbar, Volcanica 2(1), pp. 1-10. doi: 10.30909/vol.02.01.0110.

7. Barry PH, de Moor J, Giovannelli D, Schrenk M, Hummer D, Lopez T, Pratt C, Alpízar Segura Y, Battaglia A, Beaudry P, Bini G, Cascante M, d’Errico G, di Carlo M, Fattorini D, Fullerton K, Gazel E, González G, Halldórsson S, Iacovino K, Ilanko T, Kulongoski J, Manini E, Martínez M, Miller H, Nakagawa M, Ono S, Patwardhan S, Ramírez C, Regoli R, Smedile G, Turner S, Vetriani C, Yücel M, Ballentine C, Fischer T, Hilton D, Lloyd K (2019) Forearc carbon sinks reduce long-term volatile recycling into the mantle, Nature, v. 586, p. 487- 492. doi: 10.1038/s41586-019-1131-5

2018

6. Lowenstern JB, van Hinsberg V, Berlo K, Liesegang M, Iacovino K, Bindeman I, Wright H (2018) Opal-A in Glassy Pumice, Acid Alteration, and the 1817 Phreatomagmatic Eruption at Kawah Ijen (Java), Indonesia, Frontiers in Volcanology 6:11. doi: 10.3389/feart.2018.00011

2016

5. Iacovino K, Kim JS, Sisson T, Lowenstern J, Ri KH, Jang JN, Song KH, Ham HH, Oppenheimer C, Hammond JOS, Donovan A, Weber-Liu K, Ryu KR (2016) Quantifying gas emissions from the ‘Millennium Eruption’ of Paektu volcano, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea/China. Science Advances. doi 10.1126/sciadv.1600913

4. Ri KS, Hammond JOS, Ko CN, Kim H, Yun YG, Pak GJ, Ri CS, Oppenheimer C, Weber-Liu K, Iacovino K, Ryu KR (2016) Evidence for partial melt in the crust beneath Mt. Paektu (Changbaishan), Democratic People’s Republic of Korea/China. Science Advances. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.1501513

3. Iacovino K, Oppenheimer C, Scaillet B & Kyle PR (2016) Storage and evolution of mafic and intermediate alkaline magmas beneath Ross Island, Antarctica. Journal of Petrology doi:10.1093/petrology/egv083

2015

2. Iacovino K (2015) Linking subsurface to surface degassing at active volcanoes: A thermodynamic model with applications to Erebus volcano. Earth and Planetary Science Letters. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2015.09.016

2013

1. Iacovino K, Moore G, Roggensack K, Oppenheimer C & Kyle P (2013) H2O–CO2 solubility in mafic alkaline magma: applications to volatile sources and degassing behavior at Erebus volcano, Antarctica. Contrib Mineral and Petrol. doi:10.1007/s00410-013-0877-2

Education

I am a classically trained experimental petrologist working for Jacobs at NASA Johnson Space Center, Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES) department in Houston, Texas. I use high-pressure and high-temperature apparatus to make mini magma chambers in the laboratory to study why volcanoes erupt on Earth and on other planetary bodies.

I received my Bachelors of Science in Geology from Arizona State University in 2010 where I worked in the OmniPressure experimental lab (aka Depths of the Earth) under the supervision of Dr. Gordon Moore. In 2014 I received my PhD from the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, UK studying Mt. Erebus, an active volcano located on Ross Island, Antarctica with Dr. Clive Oppenheimer. From 2014–2016 I was an NSF post-doctoral fellow at the US Geological Survey in Menlo Park, California studying the ‘Millennium Eruption’ of Paektu volcano, located on the border between North Korea and China with Drs. Tom Sisson and Jake Lowenstern. From 2016-2018 I was a post-doctoral researcher at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona working with Drs. Christy Till and Ariel Anbar studying how redox potential may be transferred into the deep Earth and back to the surface in arc magmas.

I have worked on San Carlos, Arizona; Villarrica, Puyehue, and Lascar in Chile; Peaktu, North Korea/China; Turrialba and Poas, Costa Rica; Erebus volcano, Antarctica; Nyiragongo and Nyamulagira in the Democratic Republic of Congo; and Campi Flegrei in Naples, Italy. I have done experimental work at Johnson Space Center, the US Geological Survey in Menlo Park, CA, Stanford University, the OmniPressure Lab (Depths of the Earth) and the EPIC lab at Arizona State University, the University of Minnesota Experimental Petrology Group, the Institut des Sciences de la Terre d’Orleans (ISTO), and the experimental petrology lab at Università di Camerino.

Current Projects

Tracking volatile sources in the solar system

Volatiles (H, C, F, Cl) are important drivers of geologic and biologic processes, and the rock record may be used to constrain how these crucial elements were distributed in the solar system. Silicate (e.g., olivine) and phosphate minerals (e.g., apatite, merrillite) are ubiquitous in extraterrestrial rocks and are commonly used as robust recorders of volatile storage and transport processes. But many of the techniques and equations developed to interpret these crystal records have been calibrated for conditions common on Earth. It is not well known whether these same calibrations may be applied to some rocks from extraterrestrial bodies, which may have pressure, temperature, oxygen fugacity, and chemical characteristics quite distinct from those common on Earth. I am leading two experimental studies to extend our parameterization of volatile records in: a) Ca-rich olivines; and b) rocks multiply saturated in apatite and merrillite. New equations for the interpretation of extraterrestrial crystal records will be applied to lunar samples and water-bearing bodies such as angrite meteorites.

Physical and chemical constraints on large-volume pyroclastic blasts: The Campanian Ignimbrite eruption, Italy

Investigation of the Campanian Ignimbrite (Italy) to constrain physical and chemical parameters associated with gas release and ignimbrite emplacement of large-volume pyroclastic blasts. Proposed work includes: 1) detailed field investigations to better characterize the Campanian Ignimbrite stratigraphy to link distal and proximal deposits and to define the relative timing of volcanic events; and 2) a detailed petrologic study of CI products, notably by performing complete volatile analysis (H2O, CO2, S, F and Cl) of melt inclusions and apatite microphenocrysts.