Steffi Burchardt, Uppsala university, is doing research on magma chambers from extinct volcanoes. They can help us to understand the over 1000 active volcanoes existing in the world today.
She has discovered a whole new and paradoxical characteristic of magma: that it can crack even though it is fluid. Something that can be important to predict the eruption of the volcano and how big the eruption will be.
But the findings may also reveal something more - a question that has long puzzled researchers - how gold ore is formed.