Lava Flows On College Campus, Saving Tesla’s Lab

Toasting marshmallows over a campfire is so last year. What’s trending now? Toasting marshmallows over a lava flow. That’s something that kids and adults alike get to do on the campus of Syracuse University (SU), thanks to geologist Jeffrey A. Karson and sculptor Robert Wysocki. The pair started the SU Lava Project a few years ago, when Wysocki had the idea of creating a scientifically accurate lava-flow field the size of a baseball diamond—a huge piece of land art that would enable people to experience a volcano without all that pesky traveling. When Wysocki brought his idea to Karson, “it sounded completely crazy and exciting to me,” the geologist tells Newscripts. One thing led to another, and now Karson, Wysocki, and a team of researchers at SU frequently pour half-ton quantities of molten lava in a campus parking lot. They do so not only to help bring the sculptor’s vision ...