The Plumbing Of Volcanoes And What It Might Tell Us About Eruptions
Tuesday, April 3, 2012 - 10:40
in Earth & Climate
The "plumbing systems" that lie under volcanoes, the location and behavior of magma chambers on the Earth's mid-ocean ridge system, a vast chain of volcanoes along which the Earth forms new crust, could bring scientists closer to predicting large eruptions. Researchers worked in Afar (Ethiopia) and Iceland, the only places where mid-ocean ridges appear above sea level. Volcanic ridges (or "spreading centers") occur when tectonic plates rift or pull apart. Magma injects itself into weaknesses in the brittle upper crust, erupting as lava and forming new crust upon cooling. Magma chambers work like plumbing systems, channeling pressurized magma through networks of underground "pipes". read more