From Magma Chambers to Magma Oceans: A Unified Model for the Thermo-chemical-mechanical Evolution of Magma Bodies

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Authors

Tobias Keller 

Abstract

Magma bodies play a critical role in Earth's geological evolution, influencing volcanic activity, crustal differentiation, and planetary-scale processes. Understanding their thermo-chemical and mechanical evolution requires models that integrate fluid dynamics, phase changes, and chemical transport. This study presents a new numerical model that couples these processes using a multi-phase, multi-component formulation. The model simulates convection, phase segregation, and thermo-chemical evolution across a wide range of scales, from crustal magma chambers to planetary magma oceans. To ensure numerical stability and physical realism, adaptive regularisation schemes are implemented, including eddy diffusivity for higher-dimensional turbulent flows and convective mixing diffusivity for one-dimensional column models. Benchmark tests confirm the accuracy of the numerical scheme, and use cases demonstrate its applicability to scenarios such as fractional crystallisation, wall-rock assimilation, and magma recharge on crustal scales, and magma ocean solidification on planetary scales. By providing an open-source implementation, this work aims to advance our understanding of dynamic magmatic systems and their role in planetary evolution.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31223/X5NT5G

Subjects

Applied Mathematics, Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Sciences

Keywords

numerical modelling, magma dynamics, magma chamber, magma ocean, Igneous Petrology and Geochemistry, Fluid Mechanics

Dates

Published: 2025-02-06 16:15

License

CC BY Attribution 4.0 International

Additional Metadata

Conflict of interest statement:
None