For decades, scientists have suspected that large volcanic eruptions have their origins in two mysterious massive regions at the base of our planet’s mantle. Now, it’s been statistically proven.
Earth's mantle
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Finding the Gap: Seismology Offers Slab Window Insights
Studying slow tremors has helped researchers home in on the youngest part of the Chile Triple Junction’s gap between subducting plates, which offers a window to the mantle.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
300 Million Years of Polar Wander: Slowly but Surely
A reanalysis of paleomagnetic poles provides tighter bounds on the style and rate of motions of our whole planet with respect to its rotation axis.
Posted inScience Updates
The Deep Frontier of Mantle Magma Supply
Compared with crustal magma systems, little is known about the deep sources of volcanic supply chains. Interdisciplinary efforts can help answer key questions about how magma migrates from the mantle.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Hawai’i’s Depleted Peridotite Delivers More Magma
The source for the isotopically-enriched Hawaiian magmas contains peridotites that experienced near-surface melting prior incorporation in the plume.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Water Stored in the Mantle for Millions of Years May Be Linked to Continental Volcanism
New research shows that intraplate volcanism is more likely to occur over areas of the mantle that are more hydrated—particularly those that have been hydrated for a long, long time.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Modeling Mantle Dynamics as the Earth Slowly Cools
An update of the convection code ASPECT enables full coupling of plume dynamics with buoyancy effects of transition zone phase relations, showing how early layering gave way to whole-mantle plumes.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Deep Beneath California’s Sierra Nevada, Earth’s Lithosphere May Be Peeling Away
Evidence for lithospheric foundering, or the process of denser material sinking into the mantle, is emerging.
Posted inScience Updates
Beneath Greenland, Insights for Energy Transitions and Climate Models
Emerging consensus on the structure and dynamics of Greenland’s lithosphere may help improve forecasts of climate and sea level change and develop solutions for sustainable resource use.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Magmatic Fluids and Melts May Lie Beneath Dormant German Volcanoes
New processing strategies applied to old seismic data reveal potential pockets of magmatic fluids or melts from the upper mantle.