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Volatile (astrogeology) Volatiles are the group of chemical elements and chemical compounds that can be readily vaporized. In contrast with volatiles, elements and compounds that are not readily vaporized are known as refractory substances. On planet Earth, the term 'volatiles' often refers to the volatile components of magma.
Whether gas can escape gently (passive eruptions) or not (explosive eruptions) is determined by the total volatile contents of the initial magma and the viscosity of the magma, which is controlled by its composition. The term 'closed system' degassing refers to the case where gas and its parent magma ascend together and in equilibrium with each ...
During magma's storage in the crust, its composition may be modified by fractional crystallization, contamination with crustal melts, magma mixing, and degassing. Following its ascent through the crust, magma may feed a volcano and be extruded as lava, or it may solidify underground to form an intrusion, [8] such as a dike, a sill, a laccolith ...
Types of volcanic eruptions. Some of the eruptive structures formed during volcanic activity (counterclockwise): a Plinian eruption column, Hawaiian pahoehoe flows, and a lava arc from a Strombolian eruption. Several types of volcanic eruptions —during which material is expelled from a volcanic vent or fissure —have been distinguished by ...
Magma generation, both in the spreading ridge environment and within the wedge above a subduction zone, favors the eruption of the more silicic and volatile rich fraction of the crustal or upper mantle material. [9] This lower density material tends to stay within the crust and not be subducted back into the mantle. [10]
Composite or stratovolcanoes often have andesitic magma and typically form the extrusive rock andesite. Andesitic magma is composed of many gases and melted mantle rocks. [2] Cinder or scoria cones violently expel lava with high gas content, [2] and due to the vapor bubbles in this mafic lava, the extrusive basalt scoria is formed. [6]
Vesicular texture is a volcanic rock texture characterized by a rock being pitted with many cavities (known as vesicles) at its surface and inside. [1] This texture is common in aphanitic, or glassy, igneous rocks that have come to the surface of the Earth, a process known as extrusion. As magma rises to the surface the pressure on it decreases.
Igneous differentiation. In geology, igneous differentiation, or magmatic differentiation, is an umbrella term for the various processes by which magmas undergo bulk chemical change during the partial melting process, cooling, emplacement, or eruption. The sequence of (usually increasingly silicic) magmas produced by igneous differentiation is ...