Rami Alshembari

My main area of expertise is in the application of physics-based models to help understand the processes controlling the dynamics of active volcanoes, with a view to help improve eruption forecasting capabilities.

My research focuses mainly on employing numerical modelling methods to analyse and interpret volcano deformation during episodes of volcanic unrest, including the incorporation of other multidisciplinary datasets (geological and geophysical). The obtained results are used to estimate the rate, timing, mechanism, volume and location of magma supply.

The traditional conceptual model of the magmatic system is that it comprises a long-lived melt dominated magma chamber connected to a deep source. This concept is inconsistent with uprising evidence from geophysics, numerical modelling, geochronology and petrology. Instead, an emerging view is of a vertically extensive mush dominated system that extends through the crust - a transcrustal magmatic system (TCMS), with a melt phase that ephemerally accumulates within the system.

The ultimate goal of my project is to elucidate the links between magma supply, magma properties, reservoir characteristics, and surface deformation through the light of the new conceptual model of the transcrustal magmatic system (TCMS). This will be accomplished by implementing physically-realistic numerical modelling that couples the solid and mush dynamics. Such conclusions will be used to parameterize subsurface magma dynamics, to facilitate eruption forecasting, hazard assessment and risk mitigation.

• Primary Supervisor: Dr James Hickey (University of Exeter)

• Co-Supervisor: Prof Ben Williamson (University of Exeter)

• Co-Supervisor: Prof Katharine Cashman (University of Bristol)

2013 - 2017 | The Islamic University of Gaza - Palestine | B.Sc. Physics

2017 - 2018 | The International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) - Italy | Postgraduate diploma in Earth system physics (Solid Earth).

• Thesis title: seasonality in site response: an example from two historical earthquakes in Kazakhstan. 
• I was one of 10 students who were selected from over one hundred applicants from developing countries to participate in this programme.
• Following my diploma degree at the ICTP, I was granted a one-year research fellowship fully covered and sponsored by the ICTP.

2018-2019 | Research Fellow |The International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) - Italy.