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Earth science

Lava without the fizz

Nature volume 419, pages 445–446 (2002)Cite this article

The carbon dioxide content of lavas influences both the behaviour of Earth's mantle and its climate. In one particular case, the difficulties of directly measuring that content have been overcome.

Every day, hundreds of millions of tonnes of magma travel from Earth's interior to the surface, or close to it. Most of it crystallizes at shallow levels in the crust, the rest being ejected as lavas onto land or (more commonly) the sea floor. All of these magmas contain dissolved volatile molecules such as water, carbon dioxide, sulphur and chlorine, measurements of which could provide information about their concentrations and behaviour in the Earth's mantle. Such measurements would also allow calculation of the amount of volatiles entering the oceans, atmosphere and sediments (collectively known as the exosphere).

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  1. Department of Geosciences, The University of Tulsa, 600 South College Avenue, Tulsa, 74104-3189, Oklahoma, USA

    Peter Michael

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  1. Peter Michael
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Correspondence to Peter Michael.

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Michael, P. Lava without the fizz. Nature 419, 445–446 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/419445a

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/419445a

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