Carbon Dioxide – Not Water – Triggers Explosive Volcanoes

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Geoscientists have long thought that water – along with shallow magma stored in Earth’s crust – drives volcanoes to erupt. 

Geoscientists have long thought that water – along with shallow magma stored in Earth’s crust – drives volcanoes to erupt. Now, thanks to newly developed research tools at Cornell, scientists have learned that gaseous carbon dioxide can trigger explosive eruptions.

A new model suggests that basaltic volcanoes, typically located on the interior of tectonic plates, are fed by a deep magma within the mantle, stored about 20 to 30 kilometers below Earth’s surface.

The research, which offers a clearer picture of our planet’s deep internal dynamics and composition, with implications for improving volcanic-hazards planning, was published Aug. 7 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Read more at Cornell University

Image: Explosive lava spews from the latest eruption of the Fogo volcano located on the Cape Verde islands in November 2014. Science now knows that carbon dioxide – instead of water – triggered it. (Credit: Ricardo Ramalho/Cardiff University via Cornell University)