1,1,4,5- 1Laboratori de Càlcul Numèric (LaCàN), Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - BarcelonaTech (UPC), Campus Nord UPC, 08034 Barcelona, Spain (nima.hosseinian@upc.edu)
- 2School of Natural Sciences and CODES, University of Tasmania, Australia (j.c.afonso@utwente.nl)
- 3Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), University of Twente, the Netherlands (j.c.afonso@utwente.nl)
- 4Centre Internacional de Metodes Numerics en Enginyeria (CIMNE), Campus Nord UPC, 08034 Barcelona, Spain (berto.garcia@upc.edu, sergio.zlotnik@upc.edu)
- 5Escola Tècnica Superior d'Enginyers de Camins, Canals i Ports de Barcelona (ETSECCPB), Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - BarcelonaTech (UPC), Campus Nord UPC, 08034 Barcelona, Spain (berto.garcia@upc.edu, sergio.zlotnik@upc.edu)
Magma migration is a complex natural process that controls volcanism, the formation of many types of ore deposits, the development of geothermal reservoirs and the thermal structure, and long-term evolution of the lithosphere [1-3]. Because the dynamics of magma migration are difficult to observe directly, numerical simulations provide a powerful tool to investigate magmatic systems, the coupled physiochemical processes involved, and the range of spatial and temporal scales over which these processes operate.
In this study, we present a new multi-phase numerical framework to study magma migration within the Earth, with a particular emphasis on the mechanical interactions between melt and solid. The framework is based on multiphase flow in porous media and it incorporates realistic rheological descriptions of lithospheric rocks, including visco-elasto-viscoplastic behavior, damage, strain weakening and the generation of porosity due to plastic deformation. Interaction between the fluid (magma) and solid (host rock) phases are described via a set of equations derived from a formal phase-averaging framework. An arbitrary Eulerian-Lagrangian solver is used to discretize the equations and solve the fully-coupled system. The validity of the model, and its potential to study multi-scale magmatic systems, are demonstrated using well-known benchmark tests and targeted numerical experiments.
Keywords: Dynamics of lithosphere and mantle, Mechanics, Numerical modeling, Physics of magma, Plasticity
REFERENCES
- [1] Keller, D. A. May, and B. J. Kaus, “Numerical modelling of magma dynamics coupled to tectonic deformation of lithosphere and crust,” Geophys. J. Int., Vol. 195, pp. 1406-1442, (2013).
- [2] Li, A. E. Pusok, T. Davis, D. A. May, and R. F. Katz, “Continuum approximation of dyking with a theory for poro-viscoelastic-viscoplastic deformation,” Geophys. J. Int., Vol. 234, pp. 2007-2031, (2023).
- [3] Oliveira, J. C. Afonso, S. Zlotnik, and P. Diez, “Numerical modelling of multiphase multicomponent reactive transport in the Earth’s interior,” Geophys. J. Int., Vol. 212, pp. 345-388, (2018).
Acknowledgment
EarthSafe Doctoral Network has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 101120556.
How to cite: Hosseinian, N., Afonso, J. C., García-González, A., and Zlotnik, S.: Numerical modeling of magma migration in lithospheric rocks, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-5509, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-5509, 2026.
