Physics of Magma Propagation and Emplacement: a multi-methodological Investigation

an ERC Starting Grant Project
duration: 2010-2015
PI: E. Rivalta, Participants: F. Maccaferri, L. Passarelli, T. Dah
See the official website of the project: ccmp-pompei.gfz-potsdam.de
See our contribution to the MantlePlumes website: www.mantleplumes.org

See our research highlights:
Off-rift volcanoes explained
Magma dikes and earthquakes

Dikes and sills are large sheet-like intrusions transporting and storing magma in the Earth's crust. When propagating, they generate seismicity and deformation and may lead to volcanic eruption. The physics of magma-lled structures is similar to that of any fluid-filled reservoir, such as oil elds and CO2 reservoirs created by sequestration. This project aims to address old and new unresolved challenging questions related to dike propagation, sill emplacement and in general to the dynamics of fluid and gas-filled reservoirs. We focus on crustal deformation, induced seismicity and external stress elds to study the signals dikes and sills produce, how they grow and why they reactivate after years of non-detected activity. We combine experimental, numerical and analytical techniques, in close cooperation with volcano observatories providing us with the data necessary to validate our models. In the lab, we simulate magma propagation injecting fluids into solidied gelatin. 

Fluid injections in gelatin are a laboratory analog of magma injections in the Earth's crust