Partial melting (source code)

= Partial melting

<Partial melting> produces liquid while some of the original <rock> remains solid. Its minerals and chemical components do not all enter the liquid in equal proportions. The extracted <geological melt> can therefore have a very different composition from its source, leaving a chemically modified residue.

Heating, <adiabatic decompression melting> or addition of a component such as water by <flux melting> can cross the relevant <solidus>. Melt fraction and extraction history influence both the resulting magma and the remaining mantle. Observing one erupted composition consequently does not uniquely determine the source rock or its temperature.