This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: When we think of a volcanic eruption, rivers of glowing lava or giant columns of ash come to mind. But beneath Earth's surface, a more complex story is unfolding.
Magma deep within volcanoes is more than molten rock. It is a thick mixture of melted rock and solid mineral crystals known as "magma mush". To picture it, imagine a semi-frozen granita: a slushy blend of solid ice crystals suspended in sweet liquid syrup.
In our recent study, published in Nature Communications, we investigate crystals from the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands. We find that the solid crystals inside the "granita" mush act as black boxes for eruptions. They allow us to track how a volcano prepares to erupt and better understand the risks of volcanic eruptions.
This is particularly relevant for La Palma, where the 2021 Tajogaite eruption marked the island's first volcanic activity in 50 years. It lasted almost three months, destroyed thousands of buildings and forced more than 7,000 people to leave their homes. Just as we read a tree's rings to understand past climate conditions, we can read volcanic crystals to understand volcanoes.
Of all the minerals found in lava, clinopyroxene is a particularly good recorder of volcanic history. Clinopyroxene grows slowly as magma cools deep within Earth, adding layers over time. Just as a tree records years of climate conditions in its rings, a clinopyroxene crystal records the temperature, depth and chemical conditions of the magma from which it grew.
This allows researchers to reconstruct the lead-up to an eruption. To uncover this history, we collected lava samples from the sites of La Palma's 1712, 1971 and 2021 eruptions. We then examined clinopyroxene crystals inside these rocks using high-resolution chemical imaging, allowing us to read their tree-ring-like growth records.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
