{"id":6301,"date":"2017-11-23T03:33:01","date_gmt":"2017-11-22T19:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/earths-heartbeat\/"},"modified":"2022-12-07T13:08:09","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T05:08:09","slug":"earths-heartbeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/earths-heartbeat\/","title":{"rendered":"Earth&#8217;s heartbeat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Molten rock pulses deep inside Earth, and WA scientists are studying it to help us to understand volcanic activity around the world.<\/p>\n<p>Hidden very deep underground is a hot flowing river of melted rock or magma.<\/p>\n<p>Like all rivers, it doesn\u2019t stay still. This movement can do two things. It can cause an earthquake or it can create rock\u2014two different types of rock, in fact.<\/p>\n<p>The river of hot magma can escape through a volcano on the Earth\u2019s surface, cooling to form volcanic rock.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Follow a Lava River\u2019s Mesmerizing Path of Destruction | Short Film Showcase\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vt3eiaduSnw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Alternatively, it can solidify slowly below the surface, forming plutonic rock.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers at Curtin University are\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41598-017-12790-w\">studying plutonic rock to understand the movement<\/a>\u00a0of magma and, in turn, help us understand the nature of volcanic activity around the world.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>So where do you start when the river is underground?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Curtin researcher Dr Christopher Spencer says the Hida Mountains in central Japan are providing the perfect site to study plutonic rock.<\/p>\n<p>Here,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=HOuiI9N5miY\">monkeys sit in hot springs<\/a>\u00a0in the area that is covered by snow.<\/p>\n<p>The springs are actually warmed by the surrounding plutonic rock. These were originally pushed to the surface so rapidly from tectonic activity (think earthquakes), they still haven\u2019t completely cooled down.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_44135\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-44135\" style=\"width: 698px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-44135 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/HidaMountains_1100-698x420.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"698\" height=\"420\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-44135\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Foggy peaks of the Hida Mountains.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>But luckily for us, the rocks on the surface are cool enough to be studied and sampled.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Rocks so cool you just have to date them<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Studying and sampling rocks is basically a history lesson.<\/p>\n<p>To date a rock, scientists have to look at its mineral composition. The age of the Hida Mountain rocks were determined using uranium-lead geochronology of zircon (a mineral found in the granite).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe saw there the youngest rocks were about 800,000 years old and preceding generations about 700,000 years apart back in time to over 2 million years,\u201d says Chris.<\/p>\n<p>He says this suggests that, every 700,000 years, there is a \u2018magmatic pulse\u2019 where the magma is suddenly \u2018pulsed\u2019 or pushed harder.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_44134\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-44134\" style=\"width: 698px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-44134 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/CampingatHida_1100-698x420.jpg\" alt=\"Tents in the Hida Mountains\" width=\"698\" height=\"420\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-44134\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Camping in the Hida Mountains.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>And the next big pulse may already be happening.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDeep in the crust, there might be another pulse that has started but hasn\u2019t manifested on the surface yet,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>Samples of the Hida Mountain rock were collected and then later analysed at the Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry of Japan and the John de Laeter Centre at Curtin Uni.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy analysing the timing of the magmatic pulses deep beneath the surface of the volcanoes, we are able to understand how these systems work from top to bottom,\u201d Chris says.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Dating is just as hard with rocks as it is in the real world<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>However, predicting magmatic pulses always comes with uncertainty.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen we measure age, we may get an age of 1 million years plus or minus 50,000 years,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe may not know the exact age, but we know it\u2019s somewhere within the range.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Chris says we\u2019re seeing a similar\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/balis-mount-agung-threatens-to-erupt-for-the-first-time-in-more-than-50-years-84356\">situation in Bali<\/a>\u00a0at the moment, where the magma is starting to rise up and cause earthquakes.<\/p>\n<p>The situation in Bali is causing people to be concerned, and it\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2017\/sep\/29\/tourist-ghost-towns-people-flee-bali-volcano-threat\">affecting the economy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMount Agung could erupt tomorrow or could be 100 years from now, and either way, a geologist wouldn\u2019t be surprised.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs geologists, we don\u2019t have the predictive framework to be that accurate, and the Earth just works on different timescales than us humans.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_44133\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-44133\" style=\"width: 698px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-44133 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/ChrisandCarlGeothermalFields_1100-698x420.jpg\" alt=\"The research team trekking\" width=\"698\" height=\"420\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-44133\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chris Spencer (Curtin) and Carl Hoiland (Stanford) entering the geothermal fields where the youngest granite pluton is found.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The next stage is to perform more measurements on the rocks to understand other parts of their chemistry.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe understand how they were first formed but not how they got so quickly to the surface.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe more we know about the tempo of magma formation deep within the volcanoes, the better we can understand the nature of volcanic activity around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This article was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/particle.scitech.org.au\">Particle<\/a>. Read the <a href=\"https:\/\/particle.scitech.org.au\/earth\/earths-heartbeat\/\">original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Molten rock pulses deep inside Earth, and WA scientists are studying it to help us to understand volcanic activity around the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":6302,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-6301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"","content":"","image":false},"related_courses":false,"credits":{"author":{"title":"Teresa Belcher","url":"#","target":""},"photographer":{"title":"Dr Christopher Spencer","url":"#","target":""},"media":false},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}}},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Stream-chris-spencer.jpg","author_meta":{"first_name":"Jarrad","last_name":"Long","display_name":"Jarrad Long"},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-19 00:00:25","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6301"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=6301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}