Of all hazards emanated by eruptions, volcanic ash is arguably the most far-reaching: transported over large distances and in many environments; it can harm health and society on scales local to global. At the same time, ash particles carry precious information on both their source volcanic processes (i.e., magma crystallization, vesiculation and fragmentation) and transport/deposition systems (i.e., tropospheric to stratospheric plumes, pyroclastic density currents, water suspensions), and more work is needed in order to incorporate all this information into predictive models of impacts.
The aim of this multidisciplinary session is to contribute to fill this gap, fostering the exchange of data and ideas between scientists covering the broadest possible range of physical and chemical aspects of ash genesis, dispersion, interaction, and impacts from a analytical to a monitoring perspective.