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Magma in Earth's Mantle Forms Deeper Than Once Thought. Study simulating pressures in mantle beneath the ocean floor shows that rocks can melt at depths up to 250 kilometers. When magma reaches Earth's surface and erupts from a volcano, it becomes lava.
Magma slowly pushes up from deep within the earth into any cracks or spaces it can find, sometimes pushing existing country rock out of the way, a process that can take millions of years. As the rock slowly cools into a solid, the different parts of the magma crystallize into minerals.