The sombrero uplift (red center) is located in the middle of an active magma system (red border).
A numerical model used to investigate a ballooning diapir in the earth's crust. Colors denote temperature.
Posted on 10/11/2012 1:43:04 PM PDT by Red Badger
(Phys.org)—Scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego have used 20 years of satellite data to reveal a geological oddity unlike any seen on Earth.
At the border of Argentina, Bolivia and Chile sits the Altiplano-Puna plateau in the central Andes region, home to the largest active magma body in Earth's continental crust and known for a long history of massive volcanic eruptions. A study led by Yuri Fialko of Scripps and Jill Pearse of the Alberta Geological Survey has revealed that magma is forming a big blob in the middle of the crust, pushing up the earth's surface across an area 100 kilometers (62 miles) wide, while the surrounding area sinks, leading to a unique geological phenomenon in the shape of a Mexican hat that the researchers have described as the "sombrero uplift." Since the magma motion is happening at a great depth and at a fairly slow rate—the earth's surface rises at about a centimeter per year or roughly the rate fingernails grow—there is no immediate danger of a volcanic outpouring, the researchers said. The details of the study, which was funded by the National Science Foundation, are published in the October 12 issue of the journal Science.
"It's a subtle motion, pushing up little by little every day, but it's this persistence that makes this uplift unusual. Most other magmatic systems that we know about show episodes of inflation and deflation," said Fialko, a professor of geophysics in the Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at Scripps.
The researchers have attributed the observed steady motion and sombrero-shaped deflection of the earth's surface to a large blob of magma, called a "diapir" in geological terms, forming on top of the Altiplano-Puna magma body. Diapirs have been studied using geologic records in rocks frozen many millions of years ago, but the new study is the first to identify an active magma diapir rising through the crust at present day.
Fialko said a similar uplift phenomenon is occurring near Socorro, New Mexico, but at a much lower rate.
A numerical model used to investigate a ballooning diapir in the earth's crust. Colors denote temperature. "Satellite data and computer models allowed us to make the important link between what's observed at the surface and what's happening with the magma body at depth," said Fialko. Fialko said the sombrero uplift could provide insights into the initial stages of massive magmatic events leading to the formation of large calderas. Such "super-volcano" events erupt thousands of cubic kilometers of magma into the atmosphere and can affect local and global climates.
Compared with the Icelandic volcano eruption in 2011 that spewed large amounts of ash into the atmosphere and disrupted global air travel, Fialko said, a super-volcano event would be thousands of times greater. "Those were truly disaster-type events," said Fialko. "Fortunately such events haven't happened in human history, but we know they did happen in the Altiplano-Puna area in the past."
Journal reference: Science
Provided by University of California - San Diego
The sombrero uplift (red center) is located in the middle of an active magma system (red border).
A numerical model used to investigate a ballooning diapir in the earth's crust. Colors denote temperature.
Bush’s fault.
When the lid blows: We don’t have ANY money for you, we’re already broke.
We should start immediately sending money to algore to keep this from getting out of hand.
When the lid blows, I hope the aim is good. Chavez, Hezbollah and all kinds oof warts can be rubbed out.
Sort of like studying when the Sun is going to explode into a dwarf star. I wonder if the grant money was tied to AGW.
Volcano
Songwriters: J. BUFFETT, K. SYKES, H. DAILEY
1979
Chorus:
Now i don’t know
I don’t know
I don’t know where i’m a gonna go
When the volcano blow
Chorus:
Let me say now i don’t know
I don’t know
I don’t know where i’m a gonna go
When the volcano blow
Ground she’s movin’ under me
Tidal waves out on the sea
Sulphur smoke up in the sky
Pretty soon we learn to fly
Chorus:
Let me hear ya now i don’t know
I don’t know
I don’t know where i’m a gonna go
When the volcano blow
Now my girl quickly say to me
Mon you better watch your feet
Lava come down soft and hot
You better lava me now or lava me not
Chorus:
Let me say now i don’t know
I don’t know
I don’t know where i’m a gonna go
When the volcano blow
— spoken: “mr utley...”
No time to count what i’m worth
‘cause i just left the planet earth
Where i go i hope there’s rum
Not to worry mon soon come
Chorus:
Now i don’t know
I don’t know
I don’t know where i’m a gonna go
When the volcano blow
Chorus:
One more now i don’t know (ah he don’t know)
I don’t know (he don’t know, mon)
I don’t know where i’m a gonna go
When the volcano blow
But i don’t want to land in new york city
Don’t want to land in mexico (no no no)
Don’t want to land on no three mile island
Don’t want to see my skin aglow (no no no)
Don’t want to land in commanche sky park
Or in nashville, tennessee (no no no)
Don’t want to land in no san juan airport
Or the yukon territory (no no no)
Don’t want to land no san diego
Don’t want to land in no buzzards bay (no no no)
Don’t want to land on no ayotollah
I got nothing more to say
Chorus:
I don’t know
I don’t know
I don’t know where i’m a gonna go
When the volcano blow
Chorus:
Just a one more, i don’t know (he don’t know)
I don’t know (i don’t know, man)
I don’t know where i’m a gonna go
When the volcano blow
The blob is called a diapir.
They couldn’t have found a better word for it, or just used blob? They had to have a scientific term?
Uh oh. Ballooning diapers are never good.
It’s called a ‘diapir’ for when the SHTF.........
Isn’t that area known as a hotbed of islamic activity?
We should locate the leak and stuff algore in it. A wooden plug might hold it for a few years.
No, just a hot bed...........
I think the leading hypothesis on the sun is that its shell is going to expand out to the orbit of at least the first asteroid belt; maybe out to the orbit of Jupiter. Then it will collapse into a red dwarf after having vaporized Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and the asteroid belt. Then it will remain like that for billions of years until it cools, finally turning into a dark mass of what was formerly a life-giving star.
It’s not big enough to go nova.
That is just racist, amigo
Ping?...........
It looks like a risen getting ready to pop...........
“Uh oh. Ballooning diapers are never good.”
Typically a sign of a massive eruption.
In an event of the size it will be, the whole world will be doomed
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