Meet the Magma Tree 

Two correspondents have brought THIS ARTICLE to my attention - many thanks and keep them coming! The article is based on AN ARTICLE (£) in Nature Geoscience. (The pound sign indicates that you need to pay to read it.)

The article describes research which has been going on for decades. Using seismometers to determine the inner structure of the earth is now developing to describe the plumes which bring volcanism to the unexpected parts of the globe. And now researchers think they have found "a titanic mantle plume "tree"" which rises from core mantle boundary.

One of the branches of the tree hits the surface at the Indian Ocean island of La Réunion. It has an extremely active volcano but is more than 1,000km from the nearest plate boundary. It is the current end of a track which leads to the Deccan Traps of India which produced 10⁶km³ of basalt around 65 million years ago.

Much effort has been expended in mapping the Réunion plume and the other plumes of the magma tree and the articles describe how they look as they do. And also does some predictions into the future - Africa seems to have a fiery future!

There is far too much to describe here - read the article!

The caldera of the Piton de la Fournaise on Réunion.
Henner Damke/Shutterstock