Steamboat Geyser, the world’s tallest, is in the midst of one of its largest periods of activity. Is it linked to new magma intruding under the Yellowstone caldera?
lava & magma
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Fault Dips Figured in Kīlauea’s Caldera Collapse
Large-volume volcanic eruptions can create instabilities in the ground above magma chambers, leading to massive collapses and telltale calderas.
Posted inNews
Using Garnets to Explore Arc Magma Oxidation
Samples collected from Greece help researchers piece together a scientific puzzle.
Posted inFeatures
Does Io Have a Magma Ocean?
Future space missions will further our knowledge of tidal heating and orbital resonances, processes thought to create spectacular volcanism and oceans of magma or water on other worlds.
Posted inNews
Explosive Volcanic Eruption Powered by Water-Saturated Magma
Little seismic unrest preceded the 2014 eruption of a stratovolcano in Indonesia, which suggests that the eruption was kick-started internally by volatile-triggered overpressure.
Posted inNews
Crystal Clocks Serve as Stopwatch for Magma Storage and Travel Times
Magma stored for 1,000 years in an Icelandic volcano journeyed to the surface in just 4 days.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
The Lower Mantle May Have a Wet Bottom
Molecular dynamics calculations suggest that molten hydrogen-bearing iron peroxide (FeO2Hx) may produce the ultra-low velocity zones that occur at the core-mantle boundary.
Posted inNews
Alexander R. “Mac” McBirney (1924–2019)
This former West Point graduate and coffee grower transformed igneous petrology and volcanology.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Age and Speed Matter in the Formation of New Oceanic Crust
A synthesis of data from studies in different ocean basins reveals that the characteristics of oceanic crust are shaped by age and spreading rate.
Posted inScience Updates
Planning an International Magma Observatory
A planned project will drill into a magma reservoir in Iceland that has never erupted to the surface, giving scientists a fresh look at Earth’s underground “plumbing.”