Hi All:

Just another puzzler for you.

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Volcanoes and Lava.

Erupting lava usually exceeds 2,000°F. Where does it come from, and why is it so hot? The earth’s mantle and inner core are essentially solid. Only the outer core, which lies 1,800–3,200 miles below the earth’s surface, is a liquid. The standard explanation is that lava (called magma when it is inside the earth) originates in hot pockets, called magma chambers, at depths of about 60 miles. How could magma escape to the surface? A key fact to remember is that at depths greater than 5 miles, pressures are so great that all empty channels through which magma might rise should be squeezed shut. Even if a crack could open, the magma must rise through colder rock. Unless this happened quite rapidly, magma would cool, solidify, and plug up the crack. Also, heat diffuses. So what concentrated enough heat to create the “hot pockets” and melt the vast volumes of rock that erupted in the past?

On the Columbia Plateau in the northwestern United States, 64,000 square miles of lava, with an average depth of 2/3 mile, spilled out rapidly under water.15 On the Deccan Plateau in western India, 200,000 square miles have been flooded with lava to an average depth of 3/4 mile. In southwestern Siberia, lava deposits are many times larger. The floor of the Pacific has even larger examples. Escaping magma at the Ontong-Java Plateau, on the floor of the western Pacific, was 25 times more extensive than on the Deccan Plateau. How did so much magma form, and how did it get out?

The world’s two deepest holes are on the Kola Peninsula in northern Russia and in Germany’s northeastern Bavaria.16 They were drilled to depths of 7.5 miles and 5.6 miles, respectively. (Such deep holes, when quickly filled with water or dense mud, will stay open.) Neither hole reached the basalt underlying the granite continents. Deep in the Russian hole, to everyone’s surprise, was hot, salty water flowing through crushed granite.17 Why was the granite crushed? In the German hole, the drill encountered cracks throughout the lower few miles. All contained saltwater having concentrations about twice that of sea water. Remember, surface waters cannot seep deeper than 5 miles, because the weight of overlying rock squeezes shut even microscopic flow channels. While geologists are mystified by this deep saltwater, the hydroplate theory provides a simple answer.

Another surprise at these drill sites was the greater-than-expected increase in the granite’s temperature with increased depth. This raises the question of why the earth’s crust is so hot.

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See [Part II: Fountains of the Great Deep > The Hydroplate Theory: An Overview > > A Few of the Mysteries > ] at link.

• http://www.creationscience.com/