The Harrat Khaybar volcanic field in Saudi Arabia. Image courtesy of NASA, taken in 2008.
Now, I might take this report with a Volvo-sized grain of salt, but I've seen a few reports lately of an earthquake swarm going on in Saudi Arabia, near the Harrat Ash-Shaqqah in Al-Eis region (apparently near Madina, but I'm not 100% sure). I might normally just chalk this up to the tectonics of the Arabian Plate, however, the latest article I read this morning, Saleh Al-Muhawis, Director General of the Civil Defense in Madina Region mentioned this as the cause of the seismicity:
... magma (molten rocks below the surface) was pushed by some force from a depth of 8 km to a depth of 4 km below the surface.
---UPDATE 5/14/2009, 4:15 PM Pacific: Some more details about the earthquake swarms. A so-called expect, the Director of the Center for Remote Sensing at ...
