It seems as if we could go and squash rocks in Switzerland in June! The entire team is excited by the prospect. Logistics are involved but solvable, we will likely drive down to makes sure our equipment doesn't get stuck in customs. Plus, I think everybody is keen on a road trip across Europe, after having been stuck in Edinburgh for over a year.
During this visit, we will mostly work on gypsum dehydration experiments, focussing on the effects of pore fluid pressure and differential stress, all in our tried and tested Mjölnir rig. However, we will also bring our new Heitt Mjölnir rig along, which takes larger, longer samples and comes with massively improved heating (can also go to much higher temperatures). I'd like to do at least one experiment with that rig to do some operational on-site testing and get ready for using it properly during our next visit in early August.
It appears that we will also be running KBr/KCl replacement experiments with Oliver Plümper. That is a really interesting but also very accessible (and fast, seconds!) replacement reaction extensively explored by Christine Putnis and coworkers. Oliver has previously tried to do this in 4D but with limited success. Hopefully we can finally make it work in June!
I definitely look forward to going back to PSI and squash some rocks!
