Dr Charles R. Carrigan
The thrust of Dr Carrigan’s research during his career has gradually migrated from Earth’s center to its surface.
As a graduate student at UCLA, he studied fluid dynamics of Earth’s outer core and its relationship to the geomagnetic field. While a post-doctoral researcher at Cambridge in the Department of Earth Sciences (1977-79), his lab experiments simulated thermal convection in Earth’s mantle and its association with the dynamics of plate tectonics.
Following his transition to a US national laboratory (Sandia) in 1980, he developed models of volcanism and the transport and evolution of molten rock or magma in Earth’s crust as part of a novel geothermal research program called the Magma Energy Project. Moving in 1989 to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, he continued work on crustal volcanism topics while becoming increasingly involved with problems relating to storing nuclear waste, detecting underground nuclear explosions by the gases they release, sequestering greenhouse gases in the crust, and using electrical methods to both monitor and remove contaminants from the soil.
During a 2002-03 sabbatical at Cambridge in the Department of Earth Sciences, while a visiting fellow of St. Edmund’s College, he continued his study on how self-lubrication of two different magmas can facilitate a volcanic eruption. In 2009, as a result of his previous work on detecting gas releases from underground nuclear explosions, he began a decade of service, as a US delegate to meetings in Vienna, Austria on scientific and technical aspects of monitoring the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
He continues as a consultant on modeling and experiments on the subsurface migration of gases and is co-investigator on a joint France-US field experiment near Albertville, France. His work in the Department of Earth Sciences will focus on the fluid dynamics of magma transport in Earth’s crust.
Charles will be accompanied by his wife, Suzanne, a retired teacher. She has also held multiple leadership roles in Bible Study Fellowship (BSF), an international, interdenominational Christian organization offering in-depth, structured studies.
Select publications
- Carrigan, C.R. and Eichelberger, J.C. Coextrusive Magma Transport and Volcanic Dome Formation: Implications for Triggering Volcanic Eruptions. Invited submission: Geosciences (Special issue: Structural Analysis in Volcanic Areas: Towards a Multidisciplinary Approach and Small- to Large-Scale Observations). 12 p, 2025. https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3263/15/5/185
- Carrigan, C.R., Sun, Y., Pili, E., Neuville, D., & Antoun, T. Cavity-melt partitioning of
refractory radionuclides and implications for detecting underground nuclear explosions. J.
Environ. Radioact., 219, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2020.106269. - Carrigan, C.R. et al. Electrical resistance tomographic monitoring of CO2 movement in deep geologic reservoirs, Intl. J. of Greenhouse Gas Control, 18, 401-408, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2013.04.016
- Carrigan, Charles, 2009 Noble Gas Field Operations Test: Towards detecting “the smoking gun: during an on-site inspection. CTBTO Spectrum, 15, p. 22-25, 2010. https://www.ctbto.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Spectrum15_page22_osi.pdf
- Carrigan, C.R., Heinle, R.A., Hudson, G.B., Nitao, J.J. and Zucca, J.J. Trace gas emissions on
geological faults as indicators of underground nuclear testing (cover article). Nature, 382, p. 528, Aug. 8, 1996. (Cover article). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232801943_Trace_gas_emissions_on_geological_faults_as_indicators_of_underground_nuclear_testing - Carrigan, C.R., Two-component magma transport and the origin of composite intrusions and lava flows in Magmatic Systems – Chap 14, (M.P. Ryan, Ed.), 319-354, Academic Press, 1994.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0074-6142(09)60102-9 - Eichelberger, J.C., Carrigan, C.R., Westrich, H.R., and Price, R.H. Non-Explosive Silicic Volcanism. (Cover article). Nature, 323, 598-602, 1986. https://doi.org/10.1038/323598a0
- Carrigan, C.R. and Gubbins, D. The source of the earth’s magnetic field. Scientific American, 240, 118-130, 1979. https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican0279-118
Select awards
- Invited visitor, Institut de Physique du Globe, Paris and French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission CEA (2019)
- US National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Administrator’s Medal of Excellence (2015)
- US-UK Fulbright Distinguished Scholar, Cambridge Univ. (2002 – 03)
- NATO Postdoctoral Fellowship in Science (Cambridge University,1977-78)
Further links
Additional Links on Application of Monitoring Technologies:
Monitoring Sequestration of Greenhouse Gases Using Electric Resistance Tomography:
https://www.llnl.gov/article/39141/livermore-develops-worlds-deepest-ert-imaging-system-co2-sequestration
Monitoring for Gases from Underground Nuclear Explosions in Support of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT):
https://cen.acs.org/articles/94/i13/New-model-help-detect-illicit.html
CTBT On-Site Inspection Exercise in Jordan (2014):
https://str.llnl.gov/past-issues/june-2015/supporting-exercise-global-importance
