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Helge Gonnermann

Professor, Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Rice University

My group studies how magma moves and erupts. We want to understand why some eruptions are explosive and others effusive, and how the gas bubbles that form as magma rises control the outcome.

We combine laboratory experiments, measurements on erupted rocks and numerical models, working from the scale of a single bubble to that of a whole volcano.

Helge Gonnermann in the field

Research themes

Recent eruptions at Kīlauea: magma supply, ascent and degassing
The 2011–12 eruption of Cordón Caulle: silicic magma storage, eruption and aftermath
Bubbles in magma: nucleation, growth and coalescence
Fragmentation and eruption style: what makes an eruption explosive
Magma properties: rheology, permeability and outgassing
Magma storage and transport: from supply at depth to the surface
Hydrothermal systems: how shallow, magma-heated aquifers respond to rain and snowmelt

Lava fountain and gas plume rising from the summit crater of Kīlauea — Lava fountain during episode 27 of the Kīlauea summit eruption, 20 June 2025.

Recent work

Ferrante, G. and Gonnermann, H.M., Bottoms up: Coupling versus decoupling within Kīlauea’s magma supply system, J. Volcanol. Geotherm. Res. (2026). Read
Ferrante, G. et al., Viscosity of bubbly magmas from torsional experiments on pumice, J. Volcanol. Geotherm. Res. (2025). Read

Research All publications

Research group

Four members of the research group standing on granite in the Sierra Nevada — Group field trip to Long Valley Caldera, the Sierra Nevada Batholith and Medicine Lake Volcano, October 2023, with Gaetano Ferrante, Jong Gil Park, Kaveh Farnoudi and Helge Gonnermann.

Group members in the field

Group members in the field

Group members in the field

Group members in the field

Group members in the field

Group members in the field

Group members in the field

Group members in the field

Group members in the field

Group members in the field

Group members in the field

Group members in the field

Group members in the field

With Jong Gil Park and Gaetano Ferrante above Honolulu, July 2022

With Jong Gil Park and Gaetano Ferrante above Honolulu, July 2022

Meet the group All photos from the trip

Join the group

We are always looking for motivated and talented students and postdocs. If our work interests you, see Opportunities or get in touch.

Lava fountain and glowing plume at Kīlauea at dusk