This session aims to bring together scientists from a range of disciplines, including geophysics, and igneous and metamorphic petrology, to develop an understanding of the physical processes involved in the emplacement of magma bodies in the crust. The mechanisms by which space is made are very poorly understood, with models ranging from those invoking ductile flow of the country rock (e.g. diapiric emplacement) to those involving brittle behaviour (e.g. stacking of sheets). A critical dimension to the problem concerns the nature of the environment into which the magma is emplaced. This may range from coherent, cool, continental crust to a pre-existing trans-crustal mush column, with thermally matured or evolving crustal conditions. The contrasting host rock rheologies of these two end-members can result in very different emplacement mechanisms, showing that understanding magma emplacement requires not only examining the intrusions themselves, but also their mechanical, in addition to thermal and chemical, interactions with the surrounding crust.
We welcome contributions from field studies, theoretical/numerical models, phase petrological, microstructural and palaeomagnetic observation, and experimental research, that capture essential features of the deformational, chemical and thermal evolution as magmas are emplaced.