A volcano is an opening, or rupture, in a planet's surface or crust, which allows hot,

molten rock, ash and gases to escape from below the surface. Volcanic activity
involving the extrusion of rock tends to form mountains or features like mountains
over a period of time.
Volcanoes are generally found where tectonic plates are pulled apart or come
together. A mid-oceanic ridge, for example the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, has examples of
volcanoes caused by "divergent tectonic plates" pulling apart; the Pacific Ring of
Fire has examples of volcanoes caused by "convergent tectonic plates" coming
together. By contrast, volcanoes are usually not created where two tectonic plates
slide past one another. Volcanoes can also form where there is stretching and
thinning of the Earth's crust (called "non-hotspot intraplate volcanism"), such as in
the African Rift Valley, the Wells Gray-Clearwater Volcanic Field and the Rio Grande
Rift in North America and the European Rhine Graben with its Eifel volcanoes.
Volcanoes can be caused by "mantle plumes". These so-called "hotspots" , for
example at Hawaii, can occur far from plate boundaries. Hotspot volcanoes are also
found elsewhere in the solar system, especially on rocky planets and moons.
Plate tectonics (from Greek τέκτων, tektōn "builder" or "mason") is a theory of
geology that has been developed to explain the observed evidence for large scale
motions of the Earth's lithosphere. The theory encompassed and superseded the
older theory of continental drift from the first half of the 20th century and the concept
of seafloor spreading developed during the 1960s.
The outermost part of the Earth's interior is made up of two layers: above is the
lithosphere, comprising the crust and the rigid uppermost part of the mantle. Below
the lithosphere lies the asthenosphere. Although solid, the asthenosphere has
relatively low viscosity and shear strength and can flow like a liquid on geological
time scales. The deeper mantle below the asthenosphere is more rigid again. This
is, however, not due to cooler temperatures but due to high pressure.
The lithosphere is broken up into what are called tectonic plates — in the case of
Earth, there are seven major and many minor plates (see list below). The
lithospheric plates ride on the asthenosphere. These plates move in relation to one
another at one of three types of plate boundaries: convergent or collision
boundaries, divergent or spreading boundaries, and transform boundaries.
Earthquakes, volcanic activity, mountain-building, and oceanic trench formation
occur along plate boundaries. The lateral movement of the plates is typically at
speeds of 0.65 to 8.50 centimeters per year.
Divergent plate boundaries
At the mid-oceanic ridges, two tectonic plates diverge from one another. New
oceanic crust is being formed by hot molten rock slowly cooling and solidifying. The
crust is very thin at mid-oceanic ridges due to the pull of the tectonic plates. The
release of pressure due to the thinning of the crust leads to adiabatic expansion, and
the partial melting of the mantle. This melt causes the volcanism and makes the new
oceanic crust. Most divergent plate boundaries are at the bottom of the oceans,
therefore most volcanic activity is submarine, forming new seafloor. Black smokers
or deep sea vents are an example of this kind of volcanic activity. Where the mid-
oceanic ridge is above sea-level, volcanic islands are formed, for example, Iceland.
Convergent plate boundaries
Subduction zones are places where two plates, usually an oceanic plate and a
continental plate, collide. In this case, the oceanic plate subducts, or submerges
under the continental plate forming a deep ocean trench just offshore. The crust is
then melted by the heat from the mantle and becomes magma. This is due to the
water content lowering the melting temperature. The magma created here tends to
be very viscous due to its high silica content, so often does not reach the surface
and cools at depth. When it does reach the surface, a volcano is formed. Typical
examples for this kind of volcano are Mount Etna and the volcanoes in the Pacific
Ring of Fire.
Hotspots
Hotspots are not usually located on the ridges of tectonic plates, but above mantle
plumes, where the convection of Earth's mantle creates a column of hot material that
rises until it reaches the crust, which tends to be thinner than in other areas of the
Earth. The temperature of the plume causes the crust to melt and form pipes, which
can vent magma. Because the tectonic plates move whereas the mantle plume
remains in the same place, each volcano becomes dormant after a while and a new
volcano is then formed as the plate shifts over the hotspot. The Hawaiian Islands are
thought to be formed in such a manner, as well as the Snake River Plain, with the
Yellowstone Caldera being the part of the North American plate currently above the
hotspot.
The most common perception of a volcano is of a conical mountain, spewing lava
and poisonous gases from a crater at its summit. This describes just one of many
types of volcano, and the features of volcanoes are much more complicated. The
structure and behavior of volcanoes depends on a number of factors. Some
volcanoes have rugged peaks formed by lava domes rather than a summit crater,
whereas others present landscape features such as massive plateaus. Vents that
issue volcanic material (lava, which is what magma is called once it has escaped to
the surface, and ash) and gases (mainly steam and magmatic gases) can be located
anywhere on the landform. Many of these vents give rise to smaller cones such as
Puʻu ʻŌʻō on a flank of Hawaii's Kīlauea

Other types of volcano include cryovolcanoes (or ice volcanoes), particularly on

some moons of Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune; and mud volcanoes, which are
formations often not associated with known magmatic activity. Active mud volcanoes
tend to involve temperatures much lower than those of igneous volcanoes, except
when a mud volcano is actually a vent of an igneous volcano.
Shield volcanoes

Hawaii and Iceland are examples of places where volcanoes extrude huge
quantities of basaltic lava in effusive eruptions that gradually build a wide mountain
with a shield-like profile. Their lava flows are generally very hot and very fluid,
contributing to long flows. The largest lava shield on Earth, Mauna Loa, rises over
9,000 m from the ocean floor, is 120 km in diameter and forms part of the Big Island
of Hawaii, along with other shield volcanoes such as Mauna Kea and Kīlauea.
Olympus Mons on Mars is the largest shield volcano and also tallest known
mountain in the solar system. Smaller versions of shield volcanoes include lava
cones, and lava mounds.

Cinder cones
Main article: Volcanic cone
Volcanic cones or cinder cones result from eruptions that erupt mostly small
pieces of scoria and pyroclastics (both resemble cinders, hence the name of this
volcano type) that build up around the vent. These can be relatively short-lived
eruptions that produce a cone-shaped hill perhaps 30 to 400 meters high. Most
cinder cones erupt only once. Cinder cones may form as flank vents on larger
 volcanoes, or occur on their own. Parícutin in Mexico and Sunset Crater in
Arizona are examples of cinder cones
Stratovolcanoes are tall conical mountains composed of lava flows and other ejecta
in alternate layers, the strata that give rise to the name. Stratovolcanoes are also
known as composite volcanoes. Strato/composite volcanoes are made of cinders,
ash and lava. The volcanoes are made by another volcano. Cinders and ash pile on
top of each other, then lava flows on top and dries and then the process begins
again. Classic examples include Mt. Fuji in Japan, Mount Mayon in the Philippines,
and Mount Vesuvius and Stromboli in Italy.

Super volcanoes
Main article: Supervolcano
Supervolcano is the popular term for a large volcano that usually has a large
caldera and can potentially produce devastation on an enormous, sometimes
continental, scale. Such eruptions would be able to cause severe cooling of
global temperatures for many years afterwards because of the huge volumes of
sulfur and ash erupted. They are the most dangerous type of volcano. Examples
include Yellowstone Caldera in Yellowstone National Park of western USA,
Lake Taupo in New Zealand and Lake Toba in Sumatra, Indonesia.
Supervolcanoes are hard to identify centuries later, given the enormous areas
they cover. Large igneous provinces are also considered supervolcanoes
because of the vast amount of basalt lava erupted.
Submarine volcanoes are common features on the ocean floor. Some are active
and, in shallow water, disclose their presence by blasting steam and rocky debris
high above the surface of the sea. Many others lie at such great depths that the
tremendous weight of the water above them prevents the explosive release of steam
and gases, although they can be detected by hydrophones and discoloration of
water because of volcanic gases. Even large submarine eruptions may not disturb
the ocean surface. Because of the rapid cooling effect of water as compared to air,
and increased buoyancy, submarine volcanoes often form rather steep pillars over
their volcanic vents as compared to above-surface volcanoes. They may become so
large that they break the ocean surface as new islands. Pillow lava is a common
eruptive product of submarine volcanoes.
Subglacial volcanoes develop underneath icecaps. They are made up of flat lava
flows atop extensive pillow lavas and palagonite. When the icecap melts, the lavas
on the top collapse leaving a flat-topped mountain. Then, the pillow lavas also
collapse, giving an angle of 37.5 degrees[citation needed]. These volcanoes are also called
table mountains, tuyas or (uncommonly) mobergs. Very good examples of this type
of volcano can be seen in Iceland, however, there are also tuyas in British Columbia.
The origin of the term comes from Tuya Butte, which is one of the several tuyas in
the area of the Tuya River and Tuya Range in northern British Columbia. Tuya Butte
was the first such landform analyzed and so its name has entered the geological
literature for this kind of volcanic formation. The Tuya Mountains Provincial Park was
recently established to protect this unusual landscape, which lies north of Tuya Lake
and south of the Jennings River near the boundary with the Yukon Territory.

Volcanic activity
A popular way of classifying magmatic volcanoes is by their frequency of eruption,
with those that erupt regularly called active, those that have erupted in historical
times but are now quiet called dormant, and those that have not erupted in
historical times called extinct. However, these popular classifications—extinct in
particular—are practically meaningless to scientists. They use classifications which
refer to a particular volcano's formative and eruptive processes and resulting
shapes, which was explained above.
There is no real consensus among volcanologists on how to define an "active"
volcano. The lifespan of a volcano can vary from months to several million years,
making such a distinction sometimes meaningless when compared to the lifespans
of humans or even civilizations. For example, many of Earth's volcanoes have
erupted dozens of times in the past few thousand years but are not currently
showing signs of eruption. Given the long lifespan of such volcanoes, they are very
active. By human lifespans, however, they are not.
Scientists usually consider a volcano to be active if it is currently erupting or
showing signs of unrest, such as unusual earthquake activity or significant new gas
emissions. Many scientists also consider a volcano active if it has erupted in historic
time. It is important to note that the span of recorded history differs from region to
region; in the Mediterranean, recorded history reaches back more than 3,000 years
but in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, it reaches back less than 300
years, and in Hawaii, little more than 200 years. The Smithsonian Global Volcanism
Program's definition of 'active' is having erupted within the last 10,000 years.
Dormant volcanoes are those that are not currently active (as defined above), but
could become restless or erupt again. Confusion however, can arise because many
volcanoes which scientists consider to be active are referred to as dormant by
laypersons or in the media.
Extinct volcanoes are those that scientists consider unlikely to erupt again. Whether
a volcano is truly extinct is often difficult to determine. Since "supervolcano" calderas
can have eruptive lifespans sometimes measured in millions of years, a caldera that
has not produced an eruption in tens of thousands of years is likely to be considered
dormant instead of extinct. For example, the Yellowstone Caldera in Yellowstone
National Park is at least 2 million years old and hasn't erupted violently for
approximately 640,000 years, although there has been some minor activity relatively
recently, with hydrothermal eruptions less than 10,000 years ago and lava flows
about 70,000 years ago. For this reason, scientists do not consider the Yellowstone
Caldera extinct. In fact, because the caldera has frequent earthquakes, a very active
geothermal system (i.e. the entirety of the geothermal activity found in Yellowstone
National Park), and rapid rates of ground uplift, many scientists consider it to be an
active volcano.

There are many different kinds of volcanic activity and eruptions: phreatic eruptions
(steam-generated eruptions), explosive eruption of high-silica lava (e.g., rhyolite),
effusive eruption of low-silica lava (e.g., basalt), pyroclastic flows, lahars (debris
flow) and carbon dioxide emission. All of these activities can pose a hazard to
humans. Earthquakes, hot springs, fumaroles, mud pots and geysers often
accompany volcanic activity.
The concentrations of different volcanic gases can vary considerably from one
volcano to the next. Water vapor is typically the most abundant volcanic gas,
followed by carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide. Other principal volcanic gases include
hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen chloride, and hydrogen fluoride. A large number of minor
and trace gases are also found in volcanic emissions, for example hydrogen, carbon
monoxide, halocarbons, organic compounds, and volatile metal chlorides.
Large, explosive volcanic eruptions inject water vapor (H 2O), carbon dioxide (CO2),
sulfur dioxide (SO2), hydrogen chloride (HCl), hydrogen fluoride (HF) and ash
(pulverized rock and pumice) into the stratosphere to heights of 16–32 kilometres
(10–20 mi) above the Earth's surface. The most significant impacts from these
injections come from the conversion of sulfur dioxide to sulfuric acid (H2SO4), which
condenses rapidly in the stratosphere to form fine sulfate aerosols. The aerosols
increase the Earth's albedo—its reflection of radiation from the Sun back into space
- and thus cool the Earth's lower atmosphere or troposphere; however, they also
absorb heat radiated up from the Earth, thereby warming the stratosphere. Several
eruptions during the past century have caused a decline in the average temperature
at the Earth's surface of up to half a degree (Fahrenheit scale) for periods of one to
three years. The sulfate aerosols also promote complex chemical reactions on their
surfaces that alter chlorine and nitrogen chemical species in the stratosphere. This
effect, together with increased stratospheric chlorine levels from chlorofluorocarbon
pollution, generates chlorine monoxide (ClO), which destroys ozone (O3). As the
aerosols grow and coagulate, they settle down into the upper troposphere where
they serve as nuclei for cirrus clouds and further modify the Earth's radiation
balance. Most of the hydrogen chloride (HCl) and hydrogen fluoride (HF) are
dissolved in water droplets in the eruption cloud and quickly fall to the ground as
acid rain. The injected ash also falls rapidly from the stratosphere; most of it is
removed within several days to a few weeks. Finally, explosive volcanic eruptions
release the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide and thus provide a deep source of
carbon for biogeochemical cycles.
Gas emissions from volcanoes are a natural contributor to acid rain. Volcanic activity
releases about 130 to 230 teragrams (145 million to 255 million short tons) of carbon
dioxide each year.[1] Volcanic eruptions may inject aerosols into the Earth's
atmosphere. Large injections may cause visual effects such as unusually colorful
sunsets and affect global climate mainly by cooling it. Volcanic eruptions also
provide the benefit of adding nutrients to soil through the weathering process of
volcanic rocks. These fertile soils assist the growth of plants and various crops.
Volcanic eruptions can also create new islands, as the magma cools and solidifies
upon contact with the water.
Subglacial
Subglacial eruption: 1: Water vapor cloud, 2: Lake, 3: Ice, 4: Layers of lava and ash, 5:
Stratum, 6: Pillow lava, 7: Magma conduit, 8: Magma chamber, 9: Dike

Main article: Subglacial eruption

Subglacial eruptions are named because of activity under ice, or under a
glacier. They can cause dangerous floods, lahars, and create hyaloclastite and
pillow lava. Only five of these types of eruptions have occurred in the present
day.
[edit] Strombolian
Main article: Strombolian eruption
Strombolian eruptions are named because of activity of Stromboli in
Sicily. They are characterised by huge clots of molten lava bursting from the
summit crater to form luminous arcs through the sky. Collecting on the
flanks of the cone, lava clots combine to stream down the slopes in fiery
rivulets. The explosions are driven by bursts of gas slugs that rise faster
than surrounding magma.[1]
[edit] Vulcanian
Main article: Vulcanian eruption
Vulcanian eruptions are named after Vulcano, following Giuseppe
Mercalli's observations of its 1888-1890 eruptions. Another example
was the eruption of Parícutin in 1947. They are characterised by a
dense cloud of ash-laden gas exploding from the crater and rising high
above the peak. Steaming ash forms a whitish cloud near the upper
level of the cone.
 [edit] Peléan
Main article: Peléan eruption
In a Peléan eruption or nuée ardente (glowing cloud) eruption,
such as occurred on the Mayon Volcano in the Philippines in 1968,
a large amount of gas, dust, ash, and lava fragments are blown out
of a central crater, fall back, and form avalanches that move
downslope at speeds as great as 100 miles per hour. Such
eruptive activity can cause great destruction and loss of life if it
occurs in populated areas, as demonstrated by the devastation of
Saint-Pierre during the 1902 eruption of Mont Pelée on Martinique,
Lesser Antilles..
[edit] Hawaiian

Hawaiian eruption: 1: Ash plume, 2: Lava fountain, 3: Crater, 4: Lava

lake, 5: Fumaroles, 6: Lava flow, 7: Layers of lava and ash, 8: Stratum,
9: Sill, 10: Magma conduit, 11: Magma chamber, 12: Dike

Main article: Hawaiian eruption

Hawaiian eruptions may occur along fissures or fractures that
serve as vents, such as during the eruption of Mauna Loa
Volcano in Hawaii in 1950. Also, they can occur at a central
vent, such as during the 1959 eruption in Kilauea Iki Crater of
Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii. In fissure-type eruptions, lava spurts
from a fissure on the volcano's rift zone and feeds lava
streams that flow downslope. In central-vent eruptions, a
fountain of lava spurts to a height of several hundred feet or
 more. Such lava may collect in old pit craters to form lava
lakes, or form cones, or feed radiating flows.
[edit] Phreatic
Main article: Phreatic eruption
Phreatic eruptions (or steam-blast eruptions) are
driven by explosive expanding steam resulting from cold
ground or surface water coming into contact with hot rock
or magma. The distinguishing feature of phreatic
explosions is that they only blast out fragments of
preexisting solid rock from the volcanic conduit; no new
magma is erupted. Phreatic activity is generally weak, but
has been known to be strong, such as the 1965 eruption
of Taal Volcano, Philippines, and the 1975-1976 activity at
La Soufrière, Guadeloupe (Lesser Antilles).
[edit] Plinian

Plinian eruption: 1: ash plume, 2: Magma conduit, 3: volcanic

ash rain, 4: Layers of lava and ash, 5: Stratum, 6: Magma
chamber

Main article: Plinian eruption

Plinian eruptions are usually the most powerful, and
involve the explosive ejection of relatively viscous
lava. Large plinian eruptions— such as during 18 May
1980 at Mount St. Helens or, more recently, during 15
 June 1991 at Pinatubo in the Philippines— can send
ash and volcanic gas tens of miles into the air. The
resulting ash fallout can affect large areas hundreds
of miles downwind. Fast-moving pyroclastic flows
(“nuées ardentes”) are also commonly associated
with plinian eruptions.

Effusive eruptions are a volcanic phenomenon; in some ways the opposite of

explosive eruptions. An effusive eruption is characterized by an outpouring of low
viscosity lava which has a fairly low volatile content. Usually, shield volcanoes have
effusive eruptions. Basaltic magma erupted in an effusive manner may become an
aa or a pahoehoe and silicic magma blocky lavas and domes.
An explosive eruption is a volcanic term to describe a violent, explosive type of
eruption. Mount St. Helens in 1980 was a good example of an explosive eruption.
Such an eruption is driven by gas including water vapour accumulating under great
pressure. Driven by the hot rising magma as it interacts with the ground water the
pressure increases until it bursts violently through the overmantle of rock. This is
merely the beginning. In many cases the rising magma will have vast quantities of
gas dispersed through it, partially dissolved; held only by the enormous pressure.
With the sudden release of pressure following the initial explosion this gas resumes
its gaseous form, violently and explosively. This secondary explosion is often far
more violent than the first one; the rocks, dust, gas and pyroclastic material may be
blown 20 km into the atmosphere at rate of up to 100,000 tonnes per second, [citation
needed]
travelling at several hundred meters per second.
Sooner or later this cloud collapses, almost as violently, creating a pyroclastic flow,
the killer cloud of hot volcanic matter.

in the earth's crust, above which a cone of volcanic material has accumulated". Near
Sicily is an island named "Vulcano" from which the term "volcano" is derived. Volcanos
are a good example of nature and her unpredictable powers, and man's inferiority to
her.

The earth is made up of plates which are in a constant state of motion. Usually volcanos
develop on the boundaries of these plates. The plates have two types of movement,
convergent and divergent. Convergent movement is when the plates come together and
divergent movement is when they separate. A hot spot refers to an area on a plate that
has been heated internally, from the mantle. A volcano can form in any one of these
situations. It is not even uncommon for the majority of our volcanos to begin on the
ocean floor.

The column of a volcano is brought about by the build-up of materials (fragments, dust,
lava) that is expelled from the center of the earth. Basically the earth is made up of
various layers. The molten iron core and surface crust have sandwiched between them
a layer referred to as the mantle. The mantle is a solid formation of rock. Extreme
amounts of heat and pressure cause this mantle rock to melt. This melted rock is
known as magma. As the amount of magma increases, it a ascends to the surface.
Magma that reaches ground level is then known as lava.

Repetitive eruptions of lava and solid matter results in the formation of the walls (cone)
of the volcano. Hence the cone may be a result of millions of years of volcanic activity.
The type of formation that develops depends on the type of eruption. The different types
are caldera, cinder cones, shield volcanos, composite volcanos and strato-volcanos.

A caldera is the most volatile type. It spews out massive amounts of lava when it erupts
and results in a noticeable depression in the ground. In the cinder cone type, large
amounts of particles are ejected into the air and result in a steep and loosely
constructed structure.

A shield volcano happens at divergent margins. When the plates separate, the melted
rock will push its way to the surface. If the eruption occurs on the ocean floor, then a rift
zone is formed (these are long stretches that fill with lava). Although on land, the gentle
flow of lava forms a dome type mountain. This type of formation is usually spread out
over an extensive area. The Hawaiian Islands are a good example of this type of
formation. What actually happens is that plates slide over hot spots which are heated
from the mantle. This causes the magma to rise and fall repeatedly, eventually creating
a chain of volcanic islands.

Strata-volcanos occur when two plates come together and one slides under the other.
The bottom plate ends up having parts melted from the heat of the mantle. This results
in an increased amount a magma which forces its way to the surface.

It has taken millions of years to form the structures we see today. Numerous bouts of
volcanic activity are responsible for the sloping and peaked formations of our earth's
surface. It has been estimated that over three quarters of our earth's surface was
formed in this way.

Most of the world's volcanoes are found along the plate edges. The largest volume of volcanic material
is formed at seafloor spreading centers where the basaltic material erupts quietly onto the ocean floor.
These volcanoes are known as rift volcanoes. Such volcanoes can be found along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
and the Great Rift Valley System in East Africa.

Volcanoes formed over subduction zones where plates converge erupt violently. They are known as
subduction volcanoes and have silica-rich lava. These volcanoes may be formed in fold mountain ranges
or as offshore islands. There is a belt of subduction volcanoes in the Mediterranean region. Some
examples are Mount Etna and Mount Stromboli.

About two-thirds of the world's volcanoes are located at the Circum-Pacific region. This belt is called the
Pacific Ring of Fire. It stretches from New Zealand, the southwest Pacific, Indonesia, the Philippines,
Japan and Kuril Islands to Kamchatka. It continues into the Aleutian Islands and Alaska in North America
and runs down to the Cascade Range on the west coast of North America to Central America and to the
Andes Mountains on the west coast of South America.

A few volcanoes are found away from the plate boundaries. These are hot spot volcanoes that are
formed as a result of plate movement over a hot spot in the mantle. Some examples are the Hawaiian
volcanoes in the Pacific Ocean such as Mauna Loa

Forming Volcanoes
Magma can also push up under the middle of a lithosphere plate, though this is much less common
than magma production around plate boundaries. This interplate volcanic activity is caused by
unusually hot mantle material forming in the lower mantle and pushing up into the upper mantle. The
mantle material, which forms a plume shape that is from 500 to 1000 km wide, wells up to create a
hot spot under a particular point on the earth. Because of the unusual heat of this mantle material, it
melts, forming magma just under the earth's crust. The hot spot itself is stationary; but as a
continental plate moves over the spot, the magma will create a string of volcanoes, which die out
once they move past the hot spot. The Hawaii volcanoes were created by such a hot spot, which
appears to be at least 70 million years old.
So what happens to the magma formed by these processes? We saw that the magma produced at
ocean ridges just hardens to form new crust material, and so doesn't produce spewing land
volcanoes. There are a few continental ridge areas, where the magma does spew out onto land; but
most land volcanoes are produced by subduction zone volcanism and hot spot volcanism.
When the solid rock changes form to a more liquid rock material, it becomes less dense than the
surrounding solid rock. Because of this difference in density, the magma pushes upward with great
force (for the same reason the helium in a balloon pushes up through the denser surrounding air and
oil pushes upward through denser surrounding water). As it pushes up, its intense heat melts some
more rock, adding to the magma mixture.
The magma keeps moving through the crust unless its upward pressure is exceeded by the
downward pressure of the surrounding solid rock. At this point, the magma collects in magma
chambers below the surface of the earth. If the magma pressure rises to a high enough level, or a
crack opens up in the crust, the molten rock will spew out at the earth's surface.
f this happens, the flowing magma (now called lava) forms a volcano. The structure of the volcano,
and the intensity of the volcanic eruption, is dependent on a number of factors, primarily the
composition of the magma. In the next section, we'll look at some different magma types and see
how they erupt

the late nineteenth century, another system was introduced:

 a) explosive - Explosive volcanoes erupt suddenly, with terrifying force. These form when magma has cooled to make
a lava plug blocking a crater. The plug traps hot gas and magma under the ground, and the hot gas builds up until the
pressure becomes too great. When this happens, hot gas and magma explodes out of the volcano in a shower of dust,
ashes, cinders, and volcanic bombs. Volcanic bombs are large chunks of molten rock that fly high up into the air and
then fall on the countryside around. Explosive volcanoes tend to produce steep cones of volcanic ash.
 b) intermediate - Intermediate volcanoes can sometimes erupt explosively and emit dark clouds of ash, but they also
produce flowing lava. This type of volcano builds up cones made of alternating layers of ash and lava. Intermediate
volcanoes have characteristics of both explosive and quiet eruptions.

 c) quiet - Quiet volcanoes explode with much less suddenness, because lava does not cool and harden. The lava that
creates a quiet volcano is still runny and flowing, and do not plug the craters and trap huge quantities of explosive gas.
However, pockets of hot gas form that squirt fountains of lava into the air. Because lava flows away before hardening,
broad sheets of lava and wide, gently sloping domes are formed around the volcano. When the lava has dried, it forms a
rock known as basalt.