Determining the Depths of Magma Chambers beneath Hawaiian Volcanoes using Petrological Methods
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Date
2014-05
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The Ohio State University
Abstract
Determination of the depths of magma chambers of Hawaiian volcanoes has been a major topic of interest for geologists and volcanologists in the past since the development of the plate tectonics theory in the 1950s. This is because scientists have wondered how Hawaii’s volcanoes fit into the plate tectonic theory since Hawaii is located in the middle of the massive Pacific plate, far from any plate boundary. All of these scientists have been trying to understand how the plumbing systems of these volcanoes work above the hotspot that accounts for Hawaii’s volcanism in the crust of the Pacific plate.
Recent measurements of the composition of the magmas used in this research have led to the observation that each volcano on the big island of Hawaii has a slightly different composition, supporting the hotspot theory of volcanism in terms of types of magmas that are coming from the hotspot below as the Pacific plate moves across the hotspot. Petrologists, volcanologists, geochemists, and geophysicists have been working to get an understanding of how moving over the hotspot affects the volcano’s magma composition over time.
Petrological methods to determine the pressure of partial crystallization of Hawaiian magmas allow identification of the magma chambers depths, and suggest how the plumbing systems work in these volcanoes and where those plumbing systems will be located, in terms of depth.
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Keywords
petrological, Hawaii, petrology, depth, glasses, magmas