Abstract
ChapterĀ 9 begins with an extended but condensed discussion of igneous petrology, involving detailed discussion of phase diagrams and the difference between the various basaltic lavas which occur. The remainder of the chapter considers in sequence the path of magma from its genesis deep in the mantle to its eruption at the surface. First the creeping transport in the asthenosphere is described, then magmafracturing in the lithosphere, then crystallisation in magma chambers, and finally volcanic eruptions.
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Notes
- 1.
In Dave Stevensonās phrase, the tail wags the dog.
- 2.
More precisely, take A=sāĪ·, B=s+Ī·, and then let Ī·ā0 with Ī·ā«d.
- 3.
It is tempting to suppose that the large hexagonal basalt columns seen, for example, at the Giantās Causeway in Northern Ireland might represent a similar phenomenon, but this appears not to be the case; such columnar basalts are thought to arise through an instability associated with contraction-induced fracturing.
- 4.
The former spelling was Rhum; apparently the āhā was added in the 1900s by the owner George Bullough, who disliked the alcoholic connotation. āRumā is an anglicisation of the Scots Gaelic āRĆ¹mā, of uncertain meaning.
- 5.
This may not quite be true (at least in the way we will describe) for vulcanian eruptions, which are short term explosive events, and may be due to the build-up of (volatile) pressure in a vent which has been capped by a plug of solidified magma.
- 6.
After G.I. Taylor.
- 7.
DePaolo and Manga (2003) summarise the hypothesis, and on the same page Foulger and Natland (2003) raise various objections. The root of the controversy is (as so often) a misunderstanding of how models should be applied. The objections of Foulger and Natland are that (i) there is no tomographic evidence for plume tails; (ii) hot spots are not fixed; (iii) there is no evidence for excessive temperatures at hot spots. These objections are based on a naĆÆve understanding of how convection works. One should not expect to see plume tails tomographically, nor should hot spots be necessarily fixed, nor should there be large temperature excess in strongly variable viscosity convection. The objections are not based on data, but on preconception. The debate has become somewhat creationist in tone, with its own website (www.mantleplumes.org), and occasional inflammatory pieces, such as that of McNutt (2006), with the bye-line: āAt least one chain of hot-spot volcanoes is not caused by a plume rising up from the core-mantle boundary, calling for a reexamination of the plume hypothesis.ā McNuttās remarks were chastised by Hofmann and Hart (2007). Just as the question for global warming sceptics is: how could CO2 not cause increased temperatures? the question to be asked here is really: how could there not be plumes if the mantle is convecting at high Rayleigh number?
- 8.
The equation is closely related to that studied by Benjamin et al. (1972) as a model for long waves in shallow water. We may infer that the present equation for h is well-posed.
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Fowler, A. (2011). Magma Transport. In: Mathematical Geoscience. Interdisciplinary Applied Mathematics, vol 36. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-85729-721-1_9
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