New Study Reveals Complex Structure of Earth’s Mantle: Understanding Magma Diversity and Lava Origins

This discovery showed that the Earth’s internal structure is more complex and diverse, indicating that there are great differences in magma reservoirs in the mantle not only in terms of regional diversity but also chemical diversity.

The research team formed by Matthijs Smit (University of British Columbia) and Ellen Kooijman (Swedish Natural History Museum) clarified the contradiction observed in previous studies.

“Lava is different only because the magmas interact with different types of rock as they rise,” Smit said, explaining that the chemical diversity of lava is actually a result of magma flows. interacting with various underground rock layers as they rise to the surface. This interaction creates diversity in the composition of lavas, causing them to display different chemical properties.

It literally changes our picture of the Earth’s mantle

According to the news in FrankfurterRundschau, it was revealed that the lava came as a result of a volcanic eruption from a uniform reservoir in the Earth’s mantle. “By studying a specific group of elements, we were able to identify the chemical effects of different processes that affect the melting of magma to the surface and found that all have the same initial composition hotspot lava,” said Matthijs Smit, one of the research team. This new discovery really surprised the research team.

“The discovery literally changes our picture of hotspot lava flows and the Earth’s mantle,” Smit emphasized of this important discovery. The study was published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

The research team’s analysis not only provides a new perspective on hotspot lava in Earth’s oceanic regions, but also reveals a new link to basaltic lava on continents. These basaltic lavas are fundamentally different from the lavas of oceanic volcanoes; however, studies confirm that both types of lava have the same “ancestor” magma. This discovery reveals how magma movements in the Earth’s mantle operate in a more complex and interconnected way, showing how lava comes from similar sources in different environmental conditions. .

Much more homogeneous than previously expected

This work provides important insight into the Earth’s mantle, which researchers cannot study directly.

Matthijs Smit points out the importance of the findings by saying, “This discovery changes models of Earth’s chemical evolution and our view of global element cycles.” Smit also notes -notes “not only is the Earth’s mantle much more homogeneous than previously thought, but it may no longer contain the ‘main reservoir’ elements that were essential at one time to explain the data but can never be reconciled with the concept of mantle convection .” making statements.This new perspective fundamentally changes our understanding of the Earth’s internal structure.

This study provides important information about a part of the Earth that researchers cannot study directly:

The mantle that lies between the iron core and the surface crust. The Earth’s mantle is a bubbly layer of molten and semi-molten material that makes up more than 80 percent of the planet’s volume. Although the mantle is the largest part of the Earth’s internal structure, it is also the source of important phenomena such as the dynamic processes of the planet, plate tectonics and volcanism. These new findings help us to gain a deeper understanding of the structure and chemical evolution of the mantle.

When magma from the mantle enters the Earth’s crust and rises to the surface, it is called lava. Understanding how the Earth’s mantle is made is at the heart of research because it clarifies how the mantle behaves and how these behaviors are related to key geological processes such as plate tectonics. Factors such as mantle structure, temperature, pressure and chemical composition within it determine the basic driving forces of plate motion and volcanism. Therefore, understanding the dynamics of the mantle helps us to better understand the geological evolution of the planet and the crustal processes of today.