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.
The Ontong Java Plateau in the western Pacific Ocean is the largest oceanic plateau on Earth, and its formation mechanism has not been well understood.
Earth Sciences
Jun 15, 2026
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Scientists have shed light on a thermal process in magma that may help explain why similar volcanic systems can produce very different eruptive behaviors.
Earth Sciences
Jun 8, 2026
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The plumbing systems of volcanoes are vast and complex. But they aren't consistent, even in the same volcano. A Cornell-led collaboration found very different mechanisms behind two historic eruptions of Mount Etna in Italy. ...
Earth Sciences
Jun 6, 2026
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796
4.5 billion years ago was an interesting time for Earth. The atmosphere was thick and what we would now think of as toxic. The moon, which was freshly formed, looks much more massive than it does today and faintly glows with ...
Astrobiology
Jun 1, 2026
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Some 350,000 years ago, the center of New Zealand's North Island appeared much different than the mountainous, scrub-covered landscape it is today. Amid a glacial period, temperatures were colder and conditions harsher. Vast ...
Earth Sciences
May 30, 2026
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A new atlas charts the global distribution of unusual, critical-metal-bearing igneous rocks, finding that they often form near the thick and ancient cores of the world's major continents. Researchers from Cambridge's Department ...
Earth Sciences
May 22, 2026
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Scientists have uncovered new evidence that Earth's continents are continuously reworked deep beneath the surface, offering fresh insight into how continents have evolved over billions of years.
Earth Sciences
May 20, 2026
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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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27
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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