Magma is a high-temperature, silicate-dominated molten or partially molten substance generated within Earth’s crust and mantle by decompression melting, flux melting, or heat transfer. It consists of a continuous liquid phase containing dissolved volatiles (e.g., H₂O, CO₂, SO₂), suspended crystals, and sometimes entrained xenoliths. Its physicochemical properties—temperature, viscosity, density, and volatile content—are governed by bulk composition (mafic to felsic), pressure, and crystallinity. Magma behaves as a complex multiphase fluid, undergoing differentiation by fractional crystallization, assimilation, and mixing, and on ascent can evolve into eruptible magma that degasses and solidifies to form igneous rocks.
An international team of researchers' analysis of minerals from the Pilbara region of Western Australia has given new insight into how ancient continents on Earth formed as far back as 3.5 billion years ago. Professor Tony ...
Earth Sciences
May 11, 2026
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A half century after NASA's Apollo 17 lunar module lifted off the moon's northeastern near side quadrant, planetary scientists still don't completely understand when or how our moon first formed. They do agree that it involved ...
Planetary Sciences
May 5, 2026
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An international team led by researchers from the National Museum of Natural Sciences (MNCN-CSIC) has identified a key mechanism that has shaped Earth's continents over billions of years. This mechanism is the deep re-lamination ...
Earth Sciences
May 5, 2026
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Io is a world of extremes. It is by far the most volcanically active world in our solar system. Being continually squeezed in the never-ending tug-of-war between Jupiter and its larger satellites will do that to a moon. As ...
Planetary Sciences
May 4, 2026
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Central Mongolia's Hangay Mountains rise more than four kilometers above sea level, forming a dramatic dome that shapes the region's climate. But for decades, geologists have been puzzled: What caused this massive mountain ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 23, 2026
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Thousands of earthquakes affecting Portugal's São Jorge Island in the Azores in March 2022 were triggered by a vast sheet of magma (molten rock) rising from more than 20km below Earth's surface and stalling just 1.6km beneath ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 23, 2026
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For more than 100,000 years, the Methana volcano in Greece appeared dormant. No lava, no explosions, no ash clouds. It appeared extinct, like many other volcanoes today. An international research team led by ETH Zurich has ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 22, 2026
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141
Mercury is a small, rocky planet about which researchers know relatively little. Two missions, taking readings as they passed over the planet, have revealed that Mercury is covered by an iron-poor and sulfur-rich crust. It ...
Planetary Sciences
Apr 19, 2026
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The moon is Earth's only natural satellite, a rocky celestial body that orbits our planet at an average distance of about 384,000 kilometers. The most widely accepted scientific explanation for the moon's origin is the "giant ...
Planetary Sciences
Apr 13, 2026
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Located in Sicily, Mount Etna is Europe's most active volcano. Yet its origin remains largely enigmatic, as no existing geological model fully explains how it formed. In a new study, scientists from the University of Lausanne ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 13, 2026
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