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  • Review Article
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Crystal mush processes and crustal magmatism

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment volume 6, pages 401–416 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Much of Earth’s magma is stored as extensive crystal mush systems, yet the prevalence of physical processes operating within mushes and their importance in volcanically active regions remain enigmatic. In this Review, we explore the physical properties and key processes of crystal mush systems. The initiation, evolution and decline of volcanic systems, modulated by heat supply and loss, could generate differences in the prevalence of mush processes through space and time. Additionally, regional tectonics alter mush properties, with mushes in cool wet settings having persistent residual melt, permitting more effective melt segregation than in hot dry settings. Disaggregation of mushes results in crystal mush material being mobilized or entrained into lavas and erupted, presenting opportunities to define the timescales and chemistry of some mush processes in volcanically active regions. Mush systems can be observed on length scales ranging from kilometres (using geological mapping) to micrometres (using crystal textures). Therefore, it is difficult to integrate data and interpretations across different fields. Improved integration of thermodynamics, textural analysis, geochemistry, modelling and experiments, alongside inputs from adjacent fields such as porous media dynamics, engineering and metallurgy will help to advance understanding of mush systems and ultimately improve hazard evaluation at active and dormant volcanic systems.

Key points

  • All magmas transition through a mush stage during solidification, when there is an interconnected solid framework that can transmit stress with an interconnected liquid in the pore spaces.

  • Long-lived crystal mushes are the site for the enrichment, segregation and deposition of many mineral deposits and are important for productive geothermal systems. Additionally, mush instability is closely linked to volcanic eruption.

  • The physical behaviour of mushes depends primarily on porosity, melt viscosity, permeability, and crystal shape and size distribution. These properties can vary substantially across different length scales.

  • Cumulates represent the crystalline residue left over after the segregation of crystals or the extraction or migration of silicate melt during igneous differentiation. Cumulates are complementary to erupted magmas.

  • Melt migration in crystal mushes can occur by grain-scale porous flow or channelization. Reactive melt migration can affect crystal mush porosity, permeability and composition, and therefore alter the chemical evolution of the residual liquid.

  • The thermal maturation of volcanic systems enhances crystal–melt segregation in the crust and is expected to increase the migration, reaction and extraction of melt from mush. Disaggregation of mush can transfer crystal cargo to erupting magmas.

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Fig. 1: Schematic mush cross-section.
Fig. 2: Mush compaction.
Fig. 3: Reactive melt infiltration.
Fig. 4: Mush disaggregation at different scales.
Fig. 5: Conceptual life cycle of a crustal magmatic system.
Fig. 6: The relationship between temperature and melt fraction.

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Acknowledgements

M.C.S.H. has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 864923), and also acknowledges support from the UK Natural Environment Research Council (grant NE/T000430/1). M.C.S.H. thanks F. Wadsworth, E. Llewellin, M. Holness and members of the mush group at Durham for helpful comments on the manuscript, and C. Annen for useful discussions. O.N. acknowledges support from Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek for multiple projects. O.N. thanks M. Holness for very useful suggestions. C.H. acknowledges support from NSF EAR-2021328. W.A.B. acknowledges support from the US National Science Foundation. P.B. acknowledges funding from INSU and OTElo and fruitful discussions with L. France. G.F.C. is funded by a Royal Society University Research Fellowship 2022. K.C. acknowledges support from the US National Science Foundation for multiple projects that contributed to the development of these ideas. C.J.L. was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council. F.S. gratefully acknowledges funding by the US National Science Foundation and the US Department of Energy over many years for studies of magmatic systems.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Sciences, Durham University, Durham, UK

    Madeleine C. S. Humphreys

  2. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Olivier Namur

  3. Department of Geology and Geological Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, USA

    Wendy A. Bohrson

  4. Université de Lorraine, CNRS, CRPG, Nancy, France

    Pierre Bouilhol

  5. School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK

    George F. Cooper & C. Johan Lissenberg

  6. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California Davis, Davis, CA, USA

    Kari M. Cooper

  7. Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA

    Christian Huber

  8. Escuela de Geología, Universidad Mayor, Santiago, Chile

    Eduardo Morgado

  9. Department of Earth Science, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

    Frank J. Spera

Authors
  1. Madeleine C. S. Humphreys
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  2. Olivier Namur
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  3. Wendy A. Bohrson
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  4. Pierre Bouilhol
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  5. George F. Cooper
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  6. Kari M. Cooper
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  7. Christian Huber
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  8. C. Johan Lissenberg
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  9. Eduardo Morgado
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  10. Frank J. Spera
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Contributions

All authors contributed to discussion of the content, and to the writing, reviewing and editing of the manuscript before submission.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Madeleine C. S. Humphreys or Olivier Namur.

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Nature Reviews Earth & Environment thanks George Bergantz, Othmar Müntener and the other, anonymous, reviewer for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Glossary

Adcumulate rocks

rocks dominated by unzoned, interstitial overgrowths of the primocryst phases with minimal amounts of trapped pore material.

Assimilation

the incorporation of surrounding crust into magma.

Compaction length scale

the characteristic distance over which the compaction rate decreases by a factor e.

Diffusion chronometry

the process of extracting time information about magmatic processes from diffusive changes in chemical gradients.

Force chain

a network of linked particles that carry more than the average load in a mush.

Glomerocryst

a texturally distinct polycrystalline aggregate of macroscopic crystals within a volcanic rock.

Igneous differentiation

any process by which magmas can change their bulk composition.

Loosely packed mush

a loose aggregate of solid particles that can be densified if the particles are rearranged.

Maximum packing

a dense packing of particles that cannot be densified without deformation of the particles.

Percolation threshold

the porosity limit above which percolative flow can no longer occur through a porous medium.

Primocryst

a crystal formed in the early stages of fractionation that makes up part of the crystal mush framework.

Rayleigh number

a dimensionless number that describes the ratio between thermal buoyancy and diffusion, and thus the likelihood of convection.

Rejuvenation

the mobilization of mushy material through the addition of heat or changes in porosity.

Rheology

the study of material deformation and flow.

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Humphreys, M.C.S., Namur, O., Bohrson, W.A. et al. Crystal mush processes and crustal magmatism. Nat Rev Earth Environ 6, 401–416 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-025-00682-x

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