For decades , geologists assumed that magma sits as a pool of liquefied rock for millions of years at a time and that each time some of it pours out onto the earth ' s surface , new liquid rises up from below to refill the chamber immediately 几十年来,地质学家都假设,岩浆是一池数百万年前同时液化的熔岩,每次喷发时涌出一部份到地表上,新的液态物质会随即从下方上升来补充岩浆库。
Such old zircons could exist in the youngest ash only if they originated in material that was ejected during the oldest eruptions and if that material later collapsed back into the magma chamber and remelted to help fuel the youngest eruptions 这麽老的锆石能够存在最年轻的火山灰中,除非它们是来自最古老的喷发物质,而且这些物质后来塌陷回岩浆库并再次熔化,以助于点燃最近一次的喷发。
If a new round of small , precursor eruptions begins in yellowstone ? and they usually do so weeks to hundreds of years before a catastrophic explosion ? testing the oxygen fingerprint of those lavas and the ages of their zircons should reveal what type of magma is abundant in the chamber below 如果黄石国家公园开始产生新一波前兆性质的小型喷发(通常是在灾难性爆发的前几周甚至数百年前) ,这时测试熔岩中含氧的特徵以及锆石的年龄,应该就可以了解下方岩浆库富含何种型态的岩浆。