Tag Archive for 'Magma'

This image from NASA’s Galileo spacecraft shows Io. There are rugged mountains several miles high, layered materials forming plateaus, and many irregular depressions called volcanic calderas. Several of the dark, flow-like features correspond to hot spots, and may be active lava flows. There are no landforms resembling impact craters, as the volcanism covers the surface with new deposits much more rapidly than the flux of comets and asteroids can create large impact craters. The picture is centered on the side of Io that always faces away from Jupiter; north is to the top. Image credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona.

Jupiter’s Moon Io May Have Subsurface Magma Ocean

Sep 14, 2015 by News Staff

Io is the Solar System’s most volcanically active planetary body. However, concentrations of volcanic activity are displaced from where they are expected...

Kilauea is the most active of the five volcanoes that together form the island of Hawaii. Image credit: University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science.

Scientists Discover Huge Magma Reservoir beneath Kilauea Volcano

Jan 30, 2014 by Natali Anderson

An anomalous magma chamber has been observed at 8–11 km depth beneath the upper east rift zone of one of the world’s most active volcanoes –...

Early Earth. Image credit: Peter Sawyer / Smithsonian Institution.

Basalt Helps Scientists Understand How Earth’s Crust Formed

Nov 7, 2013 by News Staff

European scientists examined liquid basalt at record high pressures and temperatures to better understand how our planet evolved billions of years ago. Early...

Mercury May Have Harbored Magma Ocean in Distant Past

Feb 22, 2013 by Natali Anderson

Planetary scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have proposed that Mercury may have harbored a large ocean of magma shortly after its formation...

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