Oregon's Mount Hood magma has remained unchanged during its several thousand year existence.
The magma, a hot liquid rock that lies 4.5 kilometers below the earth's surface could instantly burst in much less time according to a study printed in the science journal Nature.
"If the temperature of the rock is too cold, the magma is like peanut butter in a refrigerator," Adam Kent, a geologist at Oregon State University told television station KVAL. "It just isn't very mobile. For Mount Hood, the threshold seems to be about 750 degrees (C) - if it warms up just 50 to 75 degrees above that, it greatly increases the viscosity of the magma and makes it easier to mobilize," Kent told KVAL. Kent was also one of the authors on the study.
The findings have prompted scientists to investigate what temperature the magma currently sits as it plays a major part in determining when the volcano explodes and the kinds of bursts it endures KVAL reported.
"What happens when they mix is what happens when you squeeze a tube of toothpaste in the middle," Kent told KVAL. "A big glob kind of plops out the top, but in the case of Mount Hood - it doesn't blow the mountain to pieces," Kent told KVAL.
The magma crystallized when it initially came up from underneath the earth's crust because of cooler temperatures, which indicates a slower growth rate since the gems are not warm.
"What we found was that the magma has been stored beneath Mount Hood for at least 20,000 years - and probably more like 100,000 years. And during the time it's been there, it's been in cold storage - like the peanut butter in the fridge - a minimum of 88 percent of the time, and likely more than 99 percent of the time," Kent told KVAL.
"What is encouraging from another standpoint is that modern technology should be able to detect when magma is beginning to liquefy, or mobilize," Kent told KVAL. "And that may give us warning of a potential eruption. Monitoring gases, utilizing seismic waves and studying ground deformation through GPS are a few of the techniques that could tell us that things are warming," Kent told KVAL.
