Dr. Ulrich Küppers
Scientist
I was born in Western Germany (Linker Niederrhein). My family moved to Bavaria in Southern Germany when I was 3 years old. I grew up some 50 km south of Munich in a small village at the foothills of the Alps, surrounded by forest, lakes and with mountains nearby. As Gen X, nature was my natural playground and guide.
Some numbers:
- 09/83-07/92: Highschool (Gymnasium Tegernsee)
- 10/92-10/93: Civil service (Rotes Kreuz Miesbach)
- 11/93-07/99: Geosciences (Diplomgeologe) at Institute for Geology (LMU)
- 10/99-05/00: Engineering geologist (Dr. Rietzler & Heidrich GmbH, Rosenheim)
- 06/00-11/05: PhD (Dr. rer.nat.) at Institute for Mineralogy, Petrology and Geochemistry (LMU)
- 12/05-11/06: PostDoc at Institute for Mineralogy, Petrology and Geochemistry (LMU)
- 12/06-08/08: PostDoc at Universidade dos Açores (University of the Azores)
- Since 09/08: Permanent researcher at Department for Earth and Environmental Sciences (LMU)
Internal
- Mittelbauvertreter im Fakultätsrat (since 2021)
- Member of „Exkursionskommission“ (since 2008); head of „Exkursionskommission” since 2023
- Sicherheitsbeauftragter für Fragmentationslabor sowie Gesteinsaufbereitung
- Ersthelfer
External:
- Co-Initiator of annual German volcanology meeting “Physics of Volcanoes”
- Councillor in Advisory Board of “Deutsche Vulkanologische Gesellschaft” • Secretary General of “International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior”
Research Interests
My research interests revolve around explosive volcanic eruptions and I am combining field studies and laboratory experiments to enhance our understanding of the related phenomena: The dynamics of volcanic eruptions (how fast? How much? How long? etc.) and the related transport processes that form volcanic deposits (clast textures, grain size, deposit thickness, sedimentary features etc.) are the only proxy of the related processes that take place under Earth surface or in a hostile environment during volcanic eruptions and can accordingly not be observed directly
Quantitative Understanding of Explosive Volcanic Eruptions
This research aims to advance volcanology from a largely observational field to a reliable forecasting discipline by quantitatively understanding the complex dynamics of explosive volcanic eruptions and the subsequent transport processes. Explosive eruptions represent a major global hazard, capable of causing widespread catastrophe and fatalities, particularly given that approximately 15% of the world's population lives near potentially active volcanoes. Since the internal workings of a volcanic conduit and the hazardous ejection phase cannot be directly observed, the project proposes to derive crucial eruption, transport, and sedimentation characteristics by closely investigating pyroclasts—the rock fragments that are products of these processes. The focus is on the deposits from key Sub-Plinian to Plinian eruptions of intermediate to felsic magma composition (such as Laacher See, Montagne Pelée, Sete Cidades, and Vesuvius), as these styles pose the most significant risk to human life. Key questions involve determining the controls on variations in eruptive behavior (style, intensity, duration) and what intrinsically affects the mobility of pyroclastic density currents (PDCs). To address this, the project expands on the petrophysical and morphological characterization of pyroclasts, including the measurement of porosity and shape parameters. Porosity offers insights into the interplay of volatile content, magma ascent, and degassing, which controls the final overpressure, while morphology analysis helps define shape families that may point to specific transport mechanisms, such as abrasion and comminution during post-fragmentation secondary processes. The generated data set, derived from extensive field campaigns and tumbling experiments, complements routine deposit descriptions and significantly contributes to enhancing the hazard mitigation capabilities for explosive eruptions.