Event

Although we know that magma is generated by partial melting of rocks at depth, we have less of an understanding of the processes that transport magma from great depths (>100-150 km) into the shallower (20-0 km) crustal plumbing systems of volcanic zones.   I shall discuss how interstitial melt migrates via percolative flow, and ideas on how it eventually becomes focused and reorganized into networks.  Field and geochemical observations suggest that these networks are characterized by thermal and chemical disequilibrium between the magma and surrounding rock.  I shall also discuss some ideas for understanding the changing rheology of magma as a particle suspension, where the volume fraction of particles changes as magma cools and partially crystallizes within the crust.