Eruptive sequences can be used as windows into the thermal and chemical evolution of magma chambers. We examined a continuous vertical section of the Baichahe basalt flow associated with the late Cenozoic Chifeng flood basalt in Inner Mongolia, North China. From oldest to youngest, MgO increases, K2O, light rare earths and other incompatible elements decrease, and Nb/La and radiogenic Pb isotop...

Crustal stress field can have a significant influence on the way magma is channeled through the crust and erupted explosively at the surface. Large Caldera Forming Eruptions (LCFEs) can erupt hundreds to thousands of cubic kilometers of magma in a relatively short time along fissures under the control of a far-field extensional stress. The associated eruption intensities are estimated in the ra...

When volcanoes are active, there are characteristic signs such as ground movement, sounds, heat and ejected material. Each of these signs is a result of, and hence an information source for, fluid motion in volcanic conduits. Here we briefly review some of the links between these signs and fluid flow processes and suggest future directions that should allow advancement of eruption forecasting a...

Crystallization coupled with gravity removal of depleted interstitial melt has long been recognized as a mechanism of magma differentiation. Similarly, heat released by synplutonic basaltic magma intrusions has long been recognized as capable of driving convection in granite chambers. Direct evidence of these processes has seldom been described in granites. In the Tavares pluton, we mapped a nu...

The analysis of Anisotropy of Magnetic Susceptibility (AMS) is a powerful and rapid technique to examine the preferred orientations of mineral (magnetic) fabrics and can indicate the nature of a magma transport (vertical or lateral). The relationship between magnetic fabric and geometry of a dyke swarm enables us to understand magma emplacement processes. Depending on the mutual relationship of...

[1] We use the identification of volcanism on Mercury, together with lobate, flow-front like topography, crustal composition information and data on the stress state and history of the lithosphere, to derive a new model for the ascent and eruption of magma on Mercury. We find that extrusion is likely to be dominated by high-effusion rate events. Initial emplacement of dikes in the crust and ext...

10 The Earth’s deep interior contains significant reservoirs of volatiles such as H, C, and N. Due 11 to the incompatible nature of these volatile species, it has been difficult to reconcile their 12 storage in the residual mantle immediately following crystallization of the terrestrial magma 13 ocean (MO). As the magma ocean freezes, it is commonly assumed, very small amounts 14 of melt is ret...

Magmatic intrusions and volcanic eruptions are intimately related phenomena. Shallow magma intrusion builds subsurface reservoirs that are drained by volcanic eruptions. Thus, the long-held view is that intrusions must precede and feed eruptions. Here we show that explosive eruptions can also cause magma intrusion. We provide an account of a rapidly emplaced laccolith during the 2011 rhyolite e...