Geophysicists Detect A Huge Lava Lake Deep Below The American Southwest
Pastor Dale Morgan
Arizona Geophysicists Detect A Huge Lava Lake Deep Below The American
Southwest*
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Tempe AZ (SPX) Jun 21, 2007
A huge lake of molten rock and lava, roughly 10 miles thick spreads
underneath much of the American Southwest, some 250 miles below Tucson,
Ariz. From the surface, you can't see it, smell it or feel it. But
Arizona geophysicists Daniel Toffelmier and James Tyburczy detected the
molten layer with a comparatively new and overlooked technique for
exploring the deep Earth that uses magnetic eruptions on the sun.
Toffelmier, a hydrogeologist with Hargis + Associates, Inc., in Mesa,
Ariz., graduated from ASU's School of Earth and Space Exploration in
2006 with a master's degree in geological sciences. Tyburczy, a
professor of geoscience in the school, was Toffelmier's thesis advisor.
Their findings, which grew out of Toffelmier's thesis, are presented in
the June 21 issue of the scientific journal Nature.
"We had two goals in this research," says Tyburczy. "We wanted to test a
hypothesis about what happens to rock in Earth's mantle when it rises to
a particular depth - and we also wanted to test a computer modeling
technique for studying the deep Earth."
He adds, "Finding that sheet of melt-rock tells us we we're on the right
track."
Deep Squeeze
In 2003 two Yale University geoscientists published a hypothesis about
the composition and physical state of rocks in Earth's mantle. They
proposed that mantle rock rising through a depth of 410 kilometers
(about 250 miles) would give up any water mixed into its crystal
structure, and the rock would then melt.
"This idea is interesting and fairly controversial among geophysicists,"
says Tyburczy. "So Dan and I thought we'd test it."
Geophysicists often study the planet's structure using earthquake waves,
which are good at detecting changes in rock density. For example,
seismic waves show that Earth's density abruptly alters at particular
depths. The biggest change, or discontinuity, comes at the core-mantle
boundary, some 2,900 kilometers (1,800 miles) deep. Another lies at a
depth of 660 km (410 mi), while the third most-prominent discontinuity
occurs 410 km (250 mi) down.
But seismic waves don't tell scientists much about rocks' chemical
makeup, or about minor elements they contain, or their various mineral
phases. Scientists need a different method to study mantle rocks that
change composition as they shed water at 410 kilometers' depth and
become partly molten in the process.
A geophysical survey technique sensitive to these factors is called
magnetotellurics or geomagnetic depth sounding. "Basically," says
Toffelmier, "this method measures changes in rocks' electrical
conductivity at different depths." Calibrated by laboratory work,
magnetotelluric methods permit scientists to estimate the composition of
rocks they won't ever be able to hold in their hands.
"Rocks are semiconductors," explains Tyburczy. "And rocks with more
hydrogen embedded in their structure conduct better, as do rocks that
are partially molten." A common source for hydrogen, he notes, is water,
which can lodge throughout a mineral's crystal structure.
But how to measure the conductivity of rocks buried hundreds of miles
underfoot" The answer lies 93 million miles away.
Outsourcing
The sun emits a continuous flow of charged atomic particles called the
solar wind. This varies in strength as activity on the sun rises and
falls. When gusts of particles reach Earth, they induce changes in the
planet's magnetosphere, causing in turn weak, but measurable electrical
currents to flow through terrestrial rocks deep inside the Earth.
Toffelmier and Tyburczy used electromagnetic field data collected by
others for five regions of Earth: the American Southwest, northern
Canada, the French Alps, a regionally averaged Europe and the northern
Pacific Ocean. Only these few data sets contained information gathered
over a long-enough period to be useful in the computer modeling.
"The long-period waves tell you about deep events and features," says
Tyburczy, "while short-period ones resolve shallower features." Think of
it like an inverted cone extending down into the Earth, he says. The
deeper you go, the wider the area that's sampled, and the coarser the
resolution.
The modeling approach Toffelmier and Tyburczy used was to start with an
initial guess as to rock composition at different depths, run the model,
compare the results to the actual field data, and then alter the run's
starting point. As they worked, they found that only the data for the
southwestern United States showed signs of a water-bearing melt layer at
the 410 kilometer (250 mile) depth.
"Without a melt zone at that depth," explains Toffelmier, "we can't
match the field observations." But, says Tyburczy, "When we added a
highly conductive melt zone, 5 to 30 kilometers [3 to 20 miles] thick,
we got a much better fit." The extent of the melt sheet is unknown,
however, because the data set is limited in area. There's little chance,
the researchers say, that any molten rock from it would erupt at the
surface.
Seismic surveys show the 410-kilometer discontinuity is global in scope.
But Toffelmier and Tyburczy's work shows that melting at the 410-km
depth is patchy at best and far from global. So the Yale hypothesis
remains only partly confirmed.
What's next" "Our modeling has been only in one dimension," explains
Tyburczy. "We need to start looking in two and three dimensions. We also
need to understand better how rocks and minerals change at the
incredible pressures deep inside the Earth."
Says Toffelmier, "We've seen only the tip of the iceberg."