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Echoing what other commenters have said, I can't square the supposedly surprised scientists with what I thought I already knew about volcanoes. Can anybody fi
by lupusreal 2y ago
Echoing what other commenters have said, I can't square the supposedly surprised scientists with what I thought I already knew about volcanoes. Can anybody figure out where the miscommunication occurred?
Matching my layman understanding, Wikipedia says that an extinct volcano is one that no longer has a magma supply, but that dormant ones may unexpectedly become active. The article on the other hand speaks of dormant volcanoes supposedly being understood to have "empty" magma chambers, which structurally makes no sense, and should very clearly differentiate them from active volcanoes. Wikipedia says that the demarcation between dormant and active is so wishy washy that the term dormant is basically obsolete in the scientific literature. So what gives?
- mapt 2y agoI suspect it has something to do with the concept "magma chamber", as if there is a big, singular hole underneath each volcano, rather than a loose network of multiple layers of melted & semi-melted rock spread over tens of kilometers of crust depth, organized by geological strata, which periodically melts through an obstruction or solidifies into an obstruction.