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Field education is a critical and enriching component of the undergraduate geoscience curriculum and is enhanced when combined with a study abroad program. The affective domain -- defined in geoscience as emotion, motivation, and connection to Earth -- is an integral part of the field experience. Using questionnaire data collected at the start of two geoscience field trips, this study compares motivation and connection to Earth of study abroad students from the United States with local New Zealand students. Results show that study abroad students are more intrinsically motivated for learning, place higher value on the field trip tasks, are more pro-environmental, and are more attached to and see more positive and diverse meanings in the field area. To leverage this and improve student outcomes, we recommend that this study abroad module be adapted to be more applied, environmentally focused, and place-based. Findings highlight the importance of teaching and learning to specific study abroad students, as compared to applying unchanged curricula from local institutions.

Dating young lava flows is essential for understanding volcano's eruption frequency, yet challenging due to methodological limitations of commonly used dating techniques. Ruapehu (Aotearoa New Zealand) produced many lava flows during the Holocene, but constraints on the timing of these eruptions are scarce. Here, we use paleomagnetic dating to deliver new eruption ages of 18 lava flows with uncertainties ranging between 500 and 2,700 years (at the 95% confidence level). Comparison between lava flows' paleomagnetic directions and a local paleosecular variation record indicates that the large lava flow field located on the Whakapapa area was emplaced during at least three distinct eruptive episodes between 10600 and 7400 BP. Two of these episodes closely followed a large collapse event that affected Ruapehu's northern area and generated large volumes of lava between 10600 and 8800 BP, with the third episode producing less voluminous lava flows between 8100 and 7400 BP. Following a smaller collapse of the southeastern sector of the edifice at ca. 5300 BP, several low‐volume lava flows were emplaced during at least two distinct eruptive episodes prior to ca. 1000 BP, which supplied the Whangaehu valley with lava. The youngest age inferred from our data represents the youngest eruption age provided for a lava flow outside Ruapehu's summit region. This research provides greater detail to the Holocene effusive chronology at Ruapehu, shedding light on partial cone reconstructions after edifice collapses during the Holocene, and the time relationships between trends observed in its effusive and explosive activity. Plain Language Summary: Knowing when volcanoes have erupted is essential for hazard assessments, but the precise timing of geologically young lava flow eruptions is hard to determine with traditional methods. Earth's magnetic field is constantly changing in both direction and strength. Magnetic minerals contained in the lava flows record the direction of the field as the lava cools after eruption. Hence, solidified lavas can be dated by matching their magnetization directions to a reference record. In this study, we analyze the magnetization directions recorded in prehistoric lavas at Mt. Ruapehu (Aotearoa New Zealand) and use them to determine when they erupted. We show that a large flow field in the Whakapapa area (northwest Ruapehu) was formed during at least three distinct eruptive episodes between 10,600 and 7,350 years ago, following a catastrophic volcanic landslide at around 10,600 years ago. We also determine that the lavas present in the Whangaehu valley (east Ruapehu) erupted during at least two episodes between 4,600 and 1,000 years ago, the latter representing the youngest lavas known outside the summit area of Ruapehu. This research helps understand how Ruapehu was rebuilt after slope collapses, and the frequency of lava‐forming eruptions. Key Points: Paleomagnetism was used to date eruptive episodes in lava flow sequences at RuapehuPaleomagnetic dating yields 1300–1050 BP as the youngest eruption age known for a lava flow at the volcanoOur data provide age constraints on the timescales of vent migration and partial edifice rebuilding after collapse events [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study compares the field experience and development of sense of place (in this case, human attributed meanings and attachments to the field area) in geoscience students on three separate course sections of a six-day introductory geological mapping field trip. Students stayed in a small farm station within their 4 km[superscript 2] field area, worked in groups of three or four, and produced an individual final assessment. Findings from student interviews and pre-post surveys indicated that there were no significant differences in perceptions of the field trip purpose or sense of place between field trip sections, despite differences in instructor pedagogy and sense of place, as well as varied weather conditions. There were significant increases in student sense of place on all field trips, in contrast with previous work on a "roadside" (regional, multi-site) field trip where no significant change in sense of place occurred. In-field observations and instructor interviews identified key characteristics that supported similar sense of place and experiences on all trips: (1) consistent intended learning outcomes, (2) a carefully selected and immersive field area valued by instructors, and (3) an assessment connected to the landscape/field area with flexibility in its implementation, especially when faced with adverse weather conditions.

Terrestrial volcanic eruptions are the consequence of magmas ascending to the surface of the Earth. This ascent is driven by buoyancy forces, which are enhanced by bubble nucleation and growth (vesiculation) that reduce the density of magma (1). The development of vesicularity also greatly reduces the 'strength' of magma (2), a material parameter controlling fragmentation and thus the explosive potential of the liquid rock (3). The development of vesicularity in magmas has until now been viewed (both thermodynamically and kinetically) in terms of the pressure dependence of the solubility of water in the magma, and its role in driving gas saturation, exsolution and expansion during decompression. In contrast, the possible effects of the well documented negative temperature dependence of solubility of water in magma has largely been ignored. Recently, petrological constraints have demonstrated that considerable heating of magma may indeed be a common result of the latent heat of crystallization (4) as well as viscous (5, 6) and frictional (7) heating in areas of strain localization. Here we present field and experimental observations of magma vesiculation and fragmentation resulting from heating (rather than decompression). Textural analysis of volcanic ash from Santiaguito volcano in Guatemala reveals the presence of chemically heterogeneous filaments hosting micrometre-scale vesicles. The textures mirror those developed by disequilibrium melting induced via rapid heating during fault friction experiments, demonstrating that friction can generate sufficient heat to induce melting and vesiculation of hydrated silicic magma. Consideration of the experimentally determined temperature and pressure dependence of water solubility in magma reveals that, for many ascent paths, exsolution may be more efficiently achieved by heating than by decompression. We conclude that the thermal path experienced by magma during ascent strongly controls degassing, vesiculation, magma strength and the effusive-explosive transition in volcanic eruptions., Volcanic eruptions result from magma buoyancy, largely powered by volatile exsolution. In standard models of magma ascent this exsolution is triggered by decompression (8, 9). Upon ascent, gas bubbles (vesicles) [...]