The Magmatism Process

After tackling Earth's hability and its subsystems, minerals and rocks, and the Exogenic and Endogenic Processes. We now go back to the last lesson of Earth and Life Science for Quarter 1: Magmatism. As I have learned last year in Grade 10, magma is the molten liquid that exists inside the Earth. Going into this lesson, I expected to learn more about magma and its process. And I did! Let's look back into it:

As the title implies, Magma is what runs the Magmatism Process. Magma refers to the molten or semi-molten rock beneath the surface of the Earth where it’s temperature may vary from 700’C to 1,300’C. Conversely, the Magmatism Process is the cause of the formation and movement of magma where it happens in the Asthenosphere.

From what I have learned, there are three conditions for the melting of rocks to occur: (1) an increase in temperature, (2) a decrease in pressure, and (3) the addition of volatiles. Firstly, through the conduction process inside the Earth, hot molten rocks become a goes to cold crust. Secondly, a decrease in pressure. Rocks underneath the Earth remain solid due to exposure to high pressure. During convection, rocks traverse upwards when pressure is reduced. And lastly. addition of volatiles where volatiles refer to substances with a low melting point. Here, flux melting happens because of the addition of the impurities of water and gas to lower the melting point of the rock.

        This process proved to be integral in terms of forming new parts of the land and helping our Earth become what it is today! Truly, an amazing planet that we live in. With these first seven lessons from ELS, I hope that I can retain these things so that I can look at a better perspective of how our planet works! The last 8 weeks were nothing short of being educative about topics that I am very interested in. I hope to see more in our next quarter in ELS. Until next time, see you in Quarter two! Ad Astra!