User:Seguam/magma

Description
Magma is a complex high-temperature fluid substance. Temperatures of most magmas are in the range 700 °C to 1300 °C (or 1300 °F to 2400 °F), but very rare carbonatite magmas may be as cool as 490 °C, and komatiite magmas may have been as hot as 1600 °C. Most magmas are silicate mixtures.

Environments of magma formation and compositions are commonly correlated. Environments include subduction zones, continental rift zones, mid-ocean ridges and hotspots. Despite being found in such widespread locales, the bulk of the Earth's crust and mantle is not molten. Except for the liquid outer core, most of the Earth takes the form of a rheid, a form of solid that can move or deform under pressure. Magma typically forms in high-temperature, low-pressure environments within several kilometers of the Earth's surface.

After its formation, the composition of magma may be modified by fractional crystallization, contamination, magma mixing, and degassing. Solidification of magma produces igneous rock.

While the study of magma has historically relied on observing magma in the form of lava outflows, magma has been encountered in situ three times during geothermal drilling projects&#x2014;twice in Iceland (see Magma usage for energy production below), and once in Hawaii.

Primary melts
Primary melts are derived from direct melting of a source (typically a mantle source unless otherwise specified). Primary melts have not undergone any differentiation and represent the starting composition of a magma. In nature it is rare to find primary melts. The leucosomes of migmatites are examples of primary melts. Primary melts derived from the mantle are especially important, and are known as primitive melts or primitive magmas. By finding the primitive magma composition of a magma series it is possible to model the composition of the mantle from which a melt was formed, which is important in understanding evolution of the mantle.

Parental melts
When it is impossible to find the primitive or primary magma composition, it is often useful to attempt to identify a parental melt. A parental melt is a magma composition from which the observed range of magma chemistries has been derived by the processes of igneous differentiation. It need not be a primitive melt.

For instance, a series of basalt flows are assumed to be related to one another. A composition from which they could reasonably be produced by fractional crystallization is termed a parental melt. Fractional crystallization models would be produced to test the hypothesis that they share a common parental melt.

At high degrees of partial melting of the mantle, komatiite and picrite are produced.

Migration
Magma develops within the mantle or crust when the temperature-pressure conditions favor the molten state. Magma rises toward the Earth's surface when it is less dense than the surrounding rock and when a structural zone allows movement. Magma develops or collects in areas called magma chambers. Magma can remain in a chamber until it cools and crystallizes forming igneous rock, it erupts as a volcano, or moves into another magma chamber.

Cooling of magmas
There are two known processes by which magma changes: by volcanic eruption (to become lava), or by crystallization within the crust or mantle to form a pluton. In both cases most of the magma eventually cools and forms igneous rocks.

When magma cools it begins to form solid mineral phases. Some of these settle at the bottom of the magma chamber forming cumulates that might form mafic layered intrusions. Magma that cools slowly within a magma chamber usually ends up forming bodies of plutonic rocks such as gabbro, diorite and granite, depending upon the composition of the magma. Alternatively, if the magma is erupted it forms volcanic rocks such as basalt, andesite and rhyolite (the extrusive equivalents of gabbro, diorite and granite, respectively).

Volcanism
During a volcanic eruption the magma that leaves the underground is called lava. Lava cools and solidifies relatively quickly compared to underground bodies of magma. This fast cooling does not allow crystals to grow large, and a part of the melt does not crystallize at all, becoming glass. Rocks largely composed of volcanic glass include obsidian, scoria and pumice.

Before and during volcanic eruptions, volatiles such as CO2 and H2O partially leave the melt through a process known as exsolution. Magma with low water content becomes increasingly viscous. If massive exsolution occurs when magma heads upwards during a volcanic eruption, the resulting eruption is usually explosive.