Magmatism

Magmatism is a term used in geology, refers to the processes on the earth that affect the magma. On the one hand, volcanism, the near-surface magmatic processes, such as volcanoes, and on the other hand describes the plutonism, which refers to the processes in the earth's crust or upper mantle.

Volcanism and plutonism

Plutonic processes acting over a long period in the bowels of the earth. The formation of a pluton, a product of plutonism from the low-lying magma, can extend from a few hundred thousand years to several million years, and is therefore largely beyond human observation. Findings on these Tiefenmagmatismus can only be from the study of rock bodies formed, the plutonic win.

The near surface volcanic processes are running, on the other hand easy for the people to observe due to their rapid temporal sequence, sometimes only days, weeks or months, measure and evaluate.

History of Research

The first known member of a scientific research on the magmatism, away from the mythology, was the ancient Greek geographer Strabo (* about 63 BC; † after 23 AD ), who described the first three states of volcanism: peace, prepare and outbreak. His opinion that this constitutes an underground fire in cavities deep in the earth, has been represented to the 19th century in science. Even today, terms such as smoke, ash and slag are used in connection with the volcanic magmatism. From ancient times, and the fall of the Roman scholar Pliny the Elder, who died AD by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 dates. He was also interested in exploring volcanic processes.

The German scholar Albertus Magnus ( 1200-1280 to ) and Georgius Agricola ( 1494-1555 ) also believed in these subterranean fire. Your ideas illustrated and interpreted the Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher ( 1602-1680 ). The geographer Bernhard Varenius ( 1622-1650/51 ) related as first used the term volcano for a fire-breathing mountain and wrote in 1650 a first catalog for the familiar volcanoes. The French philosopher and scientist René Descartes (1596-1650) held the view is in the earth nor sun matter present, which would ignite the outer rock of the earth's surface.

End of the 18th century, with increasing knowledge of the magmatism, a dispute erupted between the so-called Neptunists and Plutonists on the origin of volcanic basalt Ergussgesteins. The mineralogist Abraham Gottlob Werner (1749-1817) believed that volcanic eruptions would arise by spontaneous combustion of coal seams and triggered by sudden inflowing water an eruption, with the basalt fancy by solidification in the water. One of his opponent, Nicolas Demarest (1725-1815), however, recognized the chemical genesis of volcanic basalt. In the 19th century, however, even more new theories emerged. Leopold von Buch (1774-1853) postulated so-called elevation craters, which he described as bulges magmatic processes, without being able to define the forces behind it.

The modern Magmatismusforschung began with the English geologist George Julius Scrope (1797-1876), who recognized that volcanoes are caused by the ejection of material. He distinguished between the first volcanic and plutonic operations, the geothermal still come from the time the Earth.

Today in research on the magmatism, the findings of the laws of geophysics, geochemistry, petrology and tectonic processes are taken into account. In the 20th century, the volcanology developed into a science of its own.