Under the volcanoes in the Andes where Chile, Argentina and Bolivia meet, there is a gigantic reservoir of molten magma.
For several million years, it has been there without fully solidifying or causing a supervolcanic eruption. Geologists have long wondered how this is possible. Researchers from Uppsala University, among others, have now discovered that the secret may be hidden tributaries of hot magma from inside the Earth.
“Huge volcanic eruptions from so-called supervolcanoes are very unusual, but when they happen they are extremely devastating. It’s incredibly important for volcanologists to clarify what keeps this sleeping giant alive and what can cause it to awaken,” says Valentin Troll, Professor of Petrology at the Department of Earth Sciences at Uppsala University.
The giant so-called Altiplano-Puna magma body is estimated to contain 500,000 cubic kilometers of molten and semimolten magma. In order to provide a picture of how much volume is involved, it can be said that the entire island of Gran Canaria would fit inside – more than ten times over. The last really large volcanic eruption here occurred 4 million years ago and was the last in a series of very large explosive eruptions that began 10 million years ago. Some of them can be classified as supervolcanic eruptions.
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Image via Uppsala University
