To start off, I am going to tell you what a volcano is, what they do, what's their purpose, how they have formed what types of volcanoes they are, and their anatomy along with the material within and intrusive bodies so that way you know the ins-and-outs of volcanoes and what their purpose serves on planet Earth.
First off, a volcano is a mountain that contains a very hot material called magma that is held inside of a chamber which later on in time erupts due to explosive gases expelling pyroclastic material such as magma, hotAsh, rocks, and other gases and this process is due to tectonic plates spreading apart do two subducting plates melting into the mantle and lava filling the space which causes the start of a volcano which them erupts after a point in time. This material is now called lava due to the cooling and solidifying of said material on land. Eruptions can vary in size and or type of flow due to multiple variables during the process of the eruption. The reason behind the volcano erupting it's just a natural way of cooling off and getting rid of internal heat and pressure. On top of cooling off the Earth's internal temperature it helps build up the atmosphere and on top of that volcanic ash acts as a very nutrient material for soil which helps plants grow much more than normal soil so in essence, volcanoes play multiple roles in Earth which help it further life and create new layers of rock also creating islands and creating most of Earth's water that we have now.
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Now, we'll tell you how volcanoes form. From within the Earth magma works its way to the surface and forms lava mounds along with ash deposits, over time these get bigger and bigger eventually forming larger mountains that build up into volcanoes. Once a volcano is formed it has three different stages which are active dormant and extinct. Active, is exactly what it sounds like, volcanoes that have active movement and show signs of possible eruption which are tracked through systems. The next stage is a dormant volcano which is an active volcano that is supposed to erupt but hasn't done so yet. Lastly, we have extinct volcanoes which have little to no silica content and have had no eruptions for the past ten thousand years among that it is no longer a geological hotspot which is a sign that they will not erupt ever again.
There are three main types of volcanoes that exist in human nature of those three are composite or stratovolcanoes, shield, and dome volcanoes. Composite or stratovolcanoes is a tall cone-shaped volcano list of viscosity that's usually very high which results in its lava cooling and hardening before it spreads very far. These volcanoes are common inside the subduction zone forming along the boundaries where the oceanic crust is drawn under another plate within the ocean. After this, water traps in both minerals and basalt rock and begins the process of dewatering where the water begins to be released which allows temperatures to go above the melting point where the magma then rises and begins to settle in pools at the base of the lithosphere which then eventually rises through the crust finalizing the composition of the volcano.
Next, we have shield volcanoes, these volcanoes are unique in shape and viscosity which is relatively low and primarily basaltic this causes the volcano eruption to flow out and reach areas that other volcanoes can't due to its low viscosity when it spreads out far and fast before hardening causing it to cover a very large area of ground compared to other volcanoes can. This volcano is formed due to multiple layers of lava flowing slowly over the land and last seen large amounts of time causing multiple layers to be formed on top of each other resulting in the form of a shield this is why they are not big in size but rather large in width and coverage. As lava flows away from the eruption it creates things called lava tubes which is where the love that's flowing away from the eruption cools faster than the lava underneath it causing it to harden and insulating the lava underneath allowing it to stay fluid allowing it to travel further than other types of lava. Although the lava has a low viscosity it has a high basaltic content which allows it to be more fluid but hardens at a higher rate causing them to be so flat in the first place because they are not high means of explosion intensity unless water somehow gets into the vents of the volcano causing a bad reaction due to its high supply of magma rather than pyroclastic material.
Next, we have dome volcanoes which makeup 6% of other options on Earth and can contain either basaltic or rhyolitic content. This volcano has a high viscosity like stratovolcanoes which doesn't allow the flow to go very far before it hardens which gives it a characteristic dome look. The reason for the high viscosity and this magma is its silica content or the removal of gases from its liquid. This volcano also goes through a constant process of growth, solidification, collapse, and erosion due to the lava building up and piling up and around the vent not having enough pressure to explode violently the lava piles up around the vent causing it to stably build until it can build up enough for an eruption.
Next, we have the anatomy of a volcano. destroyed off we talked about the properties of the magma and the different compositions that it has. Firstly, we have a basaltic composition which has the least silica content out of all of them along with the least gas content, viscosity, and tendency to form pyroclastics but has the highest eruptive temperature of the three and the volcano that carries this composition is mainly the shield volcanoes.
Next, this composition is sandwiched between basaltic and rhyolitic/kinetic with the middle values of all properties between silica content, gas content, eruptive temperature, viscosity, and tendency to form pyroclastic. Volcanoes that carry the andesitic composition or composite cones.
lastly, we have the rhyolitic/granitic composition. This composition has the most silica content, gas content, viscosity, and tendency to form pyroclastics but the lowest irruptive temperature out of the three. The volcano that takes this composition is the pyroclastic volcanoes and lava domes.
Now, we will talk about why some volcanic eruptions are explosive and some are quiescent. To begin, it depends on the source material for the eruption so that means the composition of the magma has to be a certain way in order for it to erupt a certain way. The two primary factors for this are viscosity and gas content and these depend on its temperature and silica content, therefore, meaning the more silica there is the more sticky the magma is and the less silica there is the less sticky and more fluid it is and as for the temperature, the hotter the magma is the more fluid the magma will be andaz the lava cools down its flow decrease is causing it to slow down in Harden. another factor in what causes the eruptions is the gas content gases are a big part of what causes the eruption and how everything mixes together with the main primary gases in the volcanoes Chambers being water vapor and carbon dioxide and this works hand-in-hand with how viscous said magma will be. the more basaltic magma is the lesser the gas content that has and the higher the rhyolitic content there is the higher the gas content is. the gas itself causes a chamber to pressurize and depending on how it mixes with the substance can depend on how the eruption will be either effusively or explosively and how the explosion will be triggered. depending on what type of volcano is will depend on how much Rock and or other materials are built on top of the magma chamber determining how much pressure from the gas is needed for the rock to fracture and for the said volcano to erupt. Now if there is a low gaseous content and a high viscosity then it will if you effusively pour out of the volcano and travel a ways away as compared to a giant explosion shooting out of the top of the volcano and landing a short distance away and hardening in a short amount of time. another factor of eruption is that there are two different types of lava flows that can affect how the lava moves about and those two are Aa and pahoehoe.
Pahoehoe is a smooth braided looking type of magma that often develops into tunnels which are also named lava tubes these are tunnels for carrying lava to the vents where it seeps out because pahoehoe creates insulated tunnels for the lava it allows the lava to flow great distances from where it flowed from its magma chamber.
As for the anatomy, you will start to notice that a volcano is beginning to Rupp 20 motifs fishers which are cracks in the Earth's crust in which magma moves through being fed through a conduit that takes it all the way up to a vent. what the eruption of the volcanoes in some cases cones are created due to the pyroclastic material which is what is Left behind after an eruption and what the magma is made of prior to the hardening.
Furthermore, one must know about the hazards that accompany the eruption of a volcano and the primary factor that is the most deadly is a pyroclastic flow referred to as the force of nature. This hot mixture is mixed up of hot gases Ash and larger lava fragments that are all banded together and shot out of the volcano during an eruption if it explodes explosively and did not effusively.in many cases the pyroclastic flow is carried away by the wind and the heat is causing the debris to fall miles away from its eruption point. Sometimes, the pyroclastic flow doesn't have to come from an eruption or rather the collapse of a column during an explosive event in which gravity carries it upwards and outwards and then allows the pumice, volcanic bombs, and blocks to fall down after being carried by gravity a ways away. As if the debris isn't bad enough, the temperature itself can kill and be just as deadly as debris falling from the sky.
Next, we have intrusive an intrusive body of which there are a few. To start, we have dikes and sills. Dikes, our bodies that come together when magma is forced into fractures and sliced across bedding surfaces and other places in the primary Rock, and then comparison there are sills which are horizontal bodies that come together when magma finds a weakness in the sedimentary beds or other Rocky places. In some cases, these two things can show columnar jointing which is when The Rock cools down and create shrinking fractures that start to make things that are shaped like a row and mostly always resembles a hexagon.
Another intrusive body is called a batholith which appears as large long rocks that are very huge in size and go very deep down. Lastly, we have a laccolith, which intrudes itself in between sedimentary strata leaving the area below relatively flat.
Finally, we are going to discuss how plate tectonics is related to volcanoes. First off, volcanoes appear at both convergent and divergent plate boundaries as well as in between. when the plates come together they involve the subduction of the crust in the ocean and this is the most common for explosive volcanoes. Mostly seen in a ring of volcanoes in the Pacific known as the Ring of fire. When the plates come together the lithosphere starts to be torn apart and decompression starts to begin whereas the melting of the plates in the subducting of the crust begins to happen which can also happen without the addition of heat coming from the lower layers
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