The Earth’s sprawling ocean ridge system is a result of overturning material in its interior, where boiling temperatures can melt and eject rocks up through the crust, splitting the sea floor and reshaping the planet’s surface over hundreds of millions of years.
Indonesia’s volcanoes are among the worlds most dangerous. To explain why, researchers from Uppsala University have used chemical analysis of tiny minerals in lava from Bali and Java. They now understand better how the Earth’s mantle is composed in that region and how magma changes before an eruption.
Indonesia’s volcanoes are among the worlds most dangerous. Through chemical analysis of tiny minerals in lava from Bali and Java, researchers from Uppsala University have found new clues.
Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the solar system. There are various configurations of hydrogen on Earth. Hydrogen exists as water vapor in the atmosphere, and water and ice in the ocean and land water, fluids in the magma and volcanoes, minerals in the crust and mantle, and with metallic iron in the core.
Scientists at the University of Liverpool have demonstrated that deep sea fault zones could transport much larger amounts of water from the Earth’s oceans to the upper mantle than previously thought.
A study by Carnegie’s Yanhao Lin and Michael Walter demonstrates that a key mineral called stishovite is capable of storing and transporting large amounts of water even under the extreme conditions found in Earth’s lower mantle.
Carbon is not only essential to life and Earth’s habitability but also traces and modifies geological processes of subduction, partial melting, degassing and change in the composition of rocks, providing valuable insights into Earth’s evolution.
The water content of Earth’s mantle is a key measurement of Earth’s water budget. Global recycling of water on Earth drives important forms of volcanism such as island arcs, controls the flow of upper-mantle fluid and plays a role in the evolution of mantle plumes.
