From quiescence to volcanic eruptions: Perspectives from trans-lithospheric magma reservoirs

MTA–HUN-REN CSFK Lendület "Momentum" PannonianVolcano Research Group (2024-2029)

The research group, launched in December 2024, aims to find answers to why and how volcanoes erupt. Using high-resolution chemical and textural studies of crystals in volcanic rocks, we can obtain direct information about the processes taking place in the subvolcanic magma reservoirs stuck different levels in the lithosphere as well as the magma generation in the mantle. We use petrological monitoring and petrochronology to explore magmatic processes, their duration and the timing of eruptions. The Carpathian-Pannonian region provides a unique natural laboratory for this, as compositionally very diverse magmas erupted here over the past 20 million years. The diverse volcanic rocks found here provide insight into the deep magmatic processes of different types of volcanoes and these provide an analogy for better understanding currently active and future volcanic eruptions and the processes and signals preceding them. We focus our research primarily on the little-known volcanic formations found on the surface and revealed by drill cores, which penetrated buried volcanic deposits in the Pannonian (Carpathian) Basin, as well as in active volcanic areas abroad.

The research group is based at the Institute for Geological and Geochemical Research, HUN-REN Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences.