Composition melt structure and properties

Silicate melts are composed mainly of silicon, oxygen, aluminium, alkalis (sodium, potassium, calcium), magnesium and iron. Silicon atoms are in tetrahedral coordination with oxygen, as in almost all silicate minerals, but in melts atomic order is preserved only over short distances. The physical behaviours of melts depend upon their atomic structures as well as upon temperature and pressure and composition.

Viscosity is a key melt property in understanding the behaviour of magmas. More silica-rich melts are typically more polymerized, with more linkage of silica tetrahedra, and so are more viscous. Dissolution of water drastically reduces melt viscosity. Higher-temperature melts are less viscous.

Generally speaking, more mafic magmas, such as those that form basalt, are hotter and less viscous than more silica-rich magmas, such as those that form rhyolite. Low viscosity leads to gentler, less explosive eruptions.

Main article: Igneous differentiation

Characteristics of several different magma types are as follows:

Ultramafic (picritic)

SiO₂ <>

Fe-Mg >8% up to 32%MgO

Temperature: up to 1500°C

Viscosity: Very Low

Eruptive behavior: gentle or very explosive (kimberilites)

Distribution: divergent plate boundaries, hot spots, convergent plate boundaries; komatiite and other ultramafic lavas are mostly Archean and were formed from a higher geothermal gradient and are unknown in the present

Mafic (basaltic)

SiO₂ <>

FeO and MgO typically <>

Temperature: up to ~1300°C

Viscosity: Low

Eruptive behavior: gentle

Distribution: divergent plate boundaries, hot spots, convergent plate boundaries

Intermediate (andesitic)

SiO₂ ~ 60%

Fe-Mg: ~ 3%

Temperature: ~1000°C

Viscosity: Intermediate

Eruptive behavior: explosive or effusive

Distribution: convergent plate boundaries, island arcs

Felsic (rhyolitic)

SiO₂ >70%

Fe-Mg: ~ 2%

Temp: <>

Viscosity: High

Eruptive behavior: explosive or effusive

Distribution: hot spots in continental crust (Yellowstone National Park), continental rifts