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.
As the BepiColombo mission prepares to enter the final phase of its journey to Mercury, a series of studies conducted by researchers at the University of Liège and KU Leuven sheds new light on the early stages of the evolution ...
Planetary Sciences
Sep 4, 2026
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The evolutionary histories of Earth and Mercury differ fundamentally. The smallest planet, closest to the sun, likely began cooling early on, much like a setting pudding: As early as about 1 billion years after its formation, ...
Planetary Sciences
Aug 28, 2026
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Volcanoes emit smoke. Beneath a volcano lies a huge chamber filled with liquid magma. A series of earthquakes means an eruption is imminent. And if a "supervolcano" like Yellowstone were to awaken, a global catastrophe would ...
Earth Sciences
Aug 19, 2026
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An international team of volcanologists working on Carlingford Mountain has found that liquid "magma chambers" do not always exist beneath volcanoes. The team instead demonstrated that magma "plumbing systems" beneath Earth's ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 31, 2026
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The lava that buried entire neighborhoods during the 2018 Kīlauea eruption was composed of nearly 80% gas bubbles near its source. A recent study shows that those bubbles played a central role in controlling how fast and ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 13, 2026
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This close-up view shows fragments of sulfur crystals, the first ever seen on the Red Planet.
Planetary Sciences
Jul 9, 2026
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Water flowing from hot springs near volcanoes often contains a mixture of meteoric water that has percolated underground and a deeper component known as magmatic water. Researchers at the University of Tsukuba used numerical ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 7, 2026
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Geologists studying some of the planet's oldest volcanic rocks have uncovered new evidence that water was playing a major role in shaping Earth's interior and driving volcanic activity more than 3 billion years ago.
Earth Sciences
Jul 7, 2026
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84
Researchers from the University of Oxford have uncovered evidence that Mars once hosted enormous, Earth-like magmatic systems deep beneath its surface—despite the planet lacking the plate tectonics long thought necessary ...
Astrobiology
Jun 26, 2026
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111
New research led by Curtin University and QUT (Queensland University of Technology) has revealed that repeated asteroid impacts may have been the dominant force shaping early Earth, delivering vast amounts of heat into the ...
Earth Sciences
Jun 25, 2026
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