Off-rift volcanoes explained

(GFZ GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam, Helmholtz Centre) Volcanoes often develop outside the rift zone in an apparently unexpected location offset by tens of kilometers has remained unanswered. An international team of scientists has shown that the pattern of stresses in the crust changes when the crust thins. As a consequence, the path of the magma pockets ascending from the ponding zone is deviated diagonally to the sides of the rift. Eventually, the magma pockets emerge at distances of tens, some...