and then: volcanoes

Okay, so, the other day I got linked to a tumblr post about volcanoes, to which my response was:

kaberett: oh goodness okay so I need to clarify
kaberett: that that post is wrong about the physics
kaberett: and rising plumes are not (for the most part) liquid, and nor is the mantle
kaberett: but that aside
kaberett: (whereas ~half the core IS actually liquid, which is slightly different to the core being "semifluid")
kaberett: (and also that's not the whole story of our current theory of How Plumes Initiate, which involves "slab graveyards", but I will stop there for now ;) )

... whereupon people went "NO WAIT WHAT SLAB GRAVEYARDS???" and I did a special-interest infodump, transcribed and slightly cleaned up below the cut for your potential amusement.

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