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Magma can survive in upper crust for hundreds of millennia

By Guest PostSeptember 1, 2013Scienceandes mountains, cascades range, craggy granite formation, crystallization, francisco gutierrez, hawaii, heat conductivity, hundreds of millennia, kilauea volcano, magma, modeling research, molten rock, mount pinatubo, mount st helens, national scientiﬁc, olivier bachmann, oozing, pacific northwest, period, Philippines, plutonic magma, plutonic rock, reservoir, Santiago, sarah gelman, silica rich magma, south america, survive, temperature dependent, universidad de chile, university of washington, upper crust, volcanic arcs, volcanic eruptions, volcanic magma, washington state, yellowstone national park, yosemite national park

Reservoirs of silica-rich magma – the kind that causes the most explosive volcanic eruptions – can persist in Earth’s upper crust for hundreds of thousands of years without triggering an eruption, according to new University of Washington modeling research.

That means an area known to have experienced a massive volcanic eruption in the past, such as Yellowstone National Park, could have a large pool of magma festering beneath it and still not be close to going off as it did 600,000 years ago.

“You might expect to see a stewing magma chamber for a long period of time and it doesn’t necessarily mean an eruption is imminent,” said Sarah Gelman, a UW doctoral student in Earth and space sciences. (more…)

Carbon’s role in atmosphere formation

By Guest PostApril 27, 2013Sciencealberto saal, atmosphere, atmosphere formation, atmospheric evolution, brown, brown university, carbon, carbon monoxide, carnegie institution, diane wetzel, erik hauri, evolution of planet, greenhouse conditions, high greenhouse potential, iron carbonyl, liquid water, magma, malcolm rutherford, mars, mars history, methane, methane gas, northwestern university, oxygen fugacity, role, steven jacobsen, subsurface carbon, volcanism, Washington

A new study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that the way carbon moves from within a planet to the surface plays a big role in the evolution of a planet’s atmosphere. If Mars released much of its carbon as methane, for example, it might have been warm enough to support liquid water.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — A new study of how carbon is trapped and released by iron-rich volcanic magma offers clues about the early atmospheric evolution on Mars and other terrestrial bodies. (more…)

Magma in Earth’s Mantle Forms Deeper Than Once Thought

By Guest PostJanuary 10, 2013Environmentananya mallik, anthony withers, brown university, carbon dioxide, carbonated rock, convection, crust, deeper magma, density, earth, earthquake, express lane, geologist, greg hirth, high pressure, jennifer wade, kyusei tsuno, magma, mantle, marc hirschmann, national science foundation, non carbonated rock, ocean floor, peridotite, rajdeep dasgupta, rice university, rock, seafloor, seismic wave, silicate rich mantle, temperature, university of minnesota, volcanic eruption, within the earth

Study simulating pressures in mantle beneath the ocean floor shows that rocks can melt at depths up to 250 kilometers

Magma forms far deeper than geologists previously thought, according to new research results.

A team led by geologist Rajdeep Dasgupta of Rice University put very small samples of peridotite, rock derived from Earth’s mantle, under high pressures in a laboratory.

The scientists found that the rock can and does liquify, at least in small amounts, at pressures equivalent to those found as deep as 250 kilometers down in the mantle beneath the ocean floor. (more…)

NASA’s Galileo Reveals Magma ‘Ocean’ Beneath Surface of Jupiter’s Moon

By Guest PostMay 13, 2011Scienceearth surface, galileo, galileo spacecraft, hotspots, io, jupiter, krishan khurana, magma, magma layer, magnetic field, magnetometer, NASA, ocean, pacific ocean, planet, ring of fire, solar system, spacecraft, the mantle, torrence johnson, ultramific rocks, volcanic moon, volcanic object, xianzhe jia

A new analysis of data from NASA’s Galileo spacecraft has revealed that beneath the surface of Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io is an “ocean” of molten or partially molten magma.

The finding, from a study published May 13 in the journal Science, is the first direct confirmation of such a magma layer on Io and explains why the moon is the most volcanic object known in the solar system. The research was conducted by scientists from UCLA, UC Santa Cruz and the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor. (more…)

NASA Airborne Radar Set to Image Hawaiian Volcano

By Guest PostApril 1, 2011Sciencebig island, earthquakes, eruption, glacier movements, gulfstream aircraft, hawaii, kilauea volcano, landslides, magma, NASA, pacific region, paul lundgren, rift zone, uavsar, uninhabited aerial vehicle synthetic aperture radar, volcanoes

PASADENA, Calif. – The Kilauea volcano that recently erupted on the Big Island of Hawaii will be the target for a NASA study to help scientists better understand processes occurring under Earth’s surface.

A NASA Gulfstream-III aircraft equipped with a synthetic aperture radar developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., is scheduled to depart Sunday, April 3, from the Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, Calif., to the Big Island for a nine-day mission. (more…)

Iceland Volcano’s Molten Rock Could Become Source of High-Grade Energy

By Guest PostFebruary 16, 2011Environmentbasaltic, electric power, Environment, geologists, geothermal fluids, geothermal steam, geothermal well, hydrothermal alteration, hydrothermally altered basalt, Iceland, iceland deep drilling project, krafla caldera, krafla volcano, leonard johnson, magma, silica poor basalt magma, sources of power, southwest iceland, supercritical geothermal resources, supercritical pressures and temperatures, supercritical water, underground lava, volcanic rocks, volcano, wilfred elders

*Krafla volcano gives geologists unique, unexpected opportunity to study magma*

Geologists drilling an exploratory geothermal well in 2009 in the Krafla volcano in Iceland met with a big surprise: underground lava, also called magma, flowed into the well at 2.1 kilometers (6,900 feet) depth.

It forced the scientists to stop drilling. (more…)

Months of Geologic Unrest Signaled Reawakening of Icelandic Volcano

By Guest PostNovember 20, 2010Nature, Scienceeyjafjallajökull, eyjafjallajökull volcano, Iceland, Icelandic volcano, kurt feigl, magma, plume of particles, trachyandesite, volcanic eruption, volcano

*Monitoring volcanoes helps researchers understand the processes that drive them to erupt*

Months of volcanic restlessness preceded the eruptions this spring of Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull, providing insight into what roused it from its centuries of slumber.

An international team of researchers analyzed geophysical changes in the long-dormant volcano leading up to its eruptions in March and April 2010. In a study published in the Nov. 18 issue of the journal Nature, the scientists suggest that magma flowing beneath the volcano may have triggered its reawakening. (more…)

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