The frontmatter for my thesis

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{\centering\color{DarkRed}\bf\Huge{Rheological controls on the \\ dynamics of channeled lava flows}\\}
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{\centering\color{darkgray}\bf\Large{Jesse Robertson}\\}
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{\centering\color{darkgray}\Large{A thesis submitted for the degree of \\ Doctor of Philosophy \\ of the Australian National University}\\}
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{\centering\color{darkgray}\Large{Research School of Earth Sciences\hfill February 2012}}
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{\centering\color{black}{Except where otherwise indicated in the text,\\ the research described in this thesis is my own original work.\\}}
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{\centering\color{black}\null\hfill{Jesse Robertson --- February 2012}\hfill\null\\}
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    % τρίτος δὲ ποταμὸς τούτων κατὰ μέσον ἐκβάλλει, καὶ ἐγγὺς τῆς ἐκβολῆς ἐκπίπτει εἰς τόπον μέγαν πυρὶ πολλῷ καόμενον, καὶ λίμνην ποιεῖ μείζω τῆς παρ᾽ ἡμῖν θαλάττης, ζέουσαν ὕδατος καὶ πηλοῦ ... οὗτος δ᾽ ἐστὶν ὃν ἐπονομάζουσιν Πυριφλεγέθοντα, οὗ καὶ οἱ ῥύακες ἀποσπάσματα ἀναφυσῶσιν ὅπῃ ἂν τύχωσι τῆς γῆς
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		tri'toj de` potamo`j tou'twn kata` me'son e)kba'llei, kai` e`llu`j th=j e`kbolh=j e`kpi'ptei eij to'pon me'gan puri` pollw=| kao'menon, kai` li'mnhn poiei= mei'zw th=j pir' h(mi=n qala'tthj, ze'ousan u('datoj kai` phlou=.~~\ldots~~ou(toj d' e'sti`n o(` e)ponoma'zousin \emph{Puriflege'qonta}, ou( kai` oi( r(u'akej a)pospa'smata a`nafusw=sin o('ph| a)'n tu'xwsi th=j gh=j.
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    	The third river flows out between these two, and near the place whence it issues it falls into a vast region burning with a great fire and makes a lake larger than our Mediterranean sea, boiling with water and mud~~\ldots~~This is the river which is called \emph{Pyriphlegethon}, and the streams of lava which spout up at various places on earth are offshoots from it.
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{\null\hfill Plato, \emph{Phaedo}\hfill\null}
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\chapter*{Abstract}
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The influence of a viscoplastic lava rheology on the dynamics of channeled lava flows is analysed using numerical methods and analogue experiments. A numerical solution for the flow of a Bingham fluid in a rectangular channel is found using a multigrid-based augmented Lagrangian scheme. The numerical results show that an internal viscoplastic rheology significantly modifies the velocity distribution within a lava flow through the development of plug regions whose size is determined by the magnitude of the yield strength. The flow rate, maximum surface velocity and central plug dimensions are determined as functions of the channel geometry and fluid rheology, and comparisons between these and several limiting analytical solutions confirm the accuracy of the numerical method used. The results are also compared to incorrect models which have been proposed previously in the literature. Several algorithms that extend the results to different sets of measured initial parameters are outlined.

The experiments used slurries of polyethylene glycol and kaolin, which flowed with a constant flux down an inclined channel under water. Three sets of complementary experiments are presented: isothermal, cooling, and solidifying flows which quantified the effects of the viscoplastic rheology on shear, internal convection and surface crust formation. The isothermal and cooling experiments showed the formation of unyielded central plug regions which were not broken up by the convective overturning. In the solidifying experiments flows fell into one of three regimes: a tube regime, in which crust covered the entire flow surface; a shear-dominant regime, with a mobile raft of crust in the channel centre and open shear zones near the walls; and a plug-dominant regime where the width of the central crust was determined by the width of the central plug region. The crust coverage is parameterized in terms of two dimensionless parameters: the ratio $w_{p}$ of central plug region width to channel width and a parameter $\vartheta$ which characterizes the relative importance of the strain and solidification rates. Finally typical lava flows on Mt Etna and the 1984 Mauna Loa lava flow are analysed to show that the parameterization agrees with lava flow crust widths observed in the field, and we find that even small yield strengths have a major effect on crust coverage.
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\chapter*{Acknowledgements}
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It is a pleasure to thank the many people who made this work possible.

Firstly, I must thank Danielle, who has put up with all the downsides which stem from a husband writing a thesis. Without her love, encouragement, organization, editing assistance and occasional kick up the backside it would have been impossible for me to finish.

I especially want to thank my supervisor and co-conspirator Ross Kerr, whose careful guidance has been invaluable throughout this study. His wide knowledge of fluid dynamics and his methodical and logical way of thinking have been of great value to a scatterbrain geologist like me. I like to think we worked pretty well as a team! I would also like to thank the other members of my committee, Ross Griffiths, Andy Hogg, Graham Hughes and Marshall Ward for the assistance that they have provided at all levels of this research.

The Geophysical Fluid Dynamics group and its visitors have provided an incredibly stimulating environment in which to do research, and I would like to thank Kial, Kelsey, Mel, Melissa, Andreea, Adele, Issa, Chris, Stewart, George, John, Henk, Stephanie, Clair, Juan, Mike, Geoff and Sherryl for acting as both a sounding board and source of ideas, an important support network, a pool of laboratory assistants and a distraction when required! Special thanks goes to Tony, Ben and Dan, who have treated my numerous mishaps in the laboratory with forbearance and good humor, and graciously awarded me the Experimental Expertise Award three years running, which I believe is a record. I also want to thank Kelvin McQueen for many interesting conversations, and his admirable willingness to consume coffee or beer at short notice.

Finally, I would also like to thank the many people who have encouraged me in a wide variety of studies over the years, including Jenny Perez, Anna Cox, Noel Johnson and Brian Frost while I was at Kings High School; Richard Norris, Alan Cooper, Rick Sibson, James White, James Scott and Virginia Toy at the University of Otago; and especially my parents Pip and Bruce and the rest of my family. They have all encouraged my fascination with natural science, philosophy and music and I would not have got here without them.

This research would not have been possible without the financial assistance of the Australian Government, the Australian Research Council and the Research School of Earth Sciences, and I express my gratitude to those agencies.

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