Study Note no.

Volcanoes- A volcano is an opening in the earth's crust through which lava, volcanic ash,
and gases escape.

Ring of Fire - also referred to as the Circum-Pacific Belt, is a path along the Pacific Ocean
characterized by active volcanoes and frequent earthquakes. The majority of Earth's
volcanoes and earthquakes take place along the Ring of Fire.

Subduction - is a geological process that takes place at convergent boundaries of

tectonic plates where one plate moves under another and is forced to sink due to high
gravitational potential energy into the mantle. Regions where this process occurs are known
as subduction zones

FORMS
1. Mountain Ranges- A mountain range or hill range is a series of
mountains or hills ranged in a line and connected by high ground.

2. Volcanoes - Beneath a volcano, liquid magma containing dissolved gases rises through
cracks in the Earth's crust. As the magma rises. Pressure decreases, allowing the gases to
form bubbles.

RESULT IN
1. Earthquake - is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release
of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves

2. Eruption - is an explosion of steam and lava from a volcano.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN VOLCANOES AND UNDERWATER VOLCANOES

● Magma Chamber - is a large pool of liquid rock beneath the surface of the Earth.
The molten rock, or magma, in such a chamber is under great pressure

● Crater - is a bowl-shaped depression, or hollowed-out area, produced by the

impact of a meteorite, volcanic activity, or an explosion

● Main Vent - A volcano's main vent is the weak point in the Earth's crust where hot
magma has been able to rise from the magma chamber and reach the surface.

● Secondary Vent - Where they reach the surface of the volcano, they form what is
referred to as a secondary vent.

TYPES OF VOLCANOES
· Cinder cone volcano - are the simplest type of volcano. They are built from particles and
blobs of congealed lava ejected from a single vent.

· Composite Volcano - also called stratovolcanoes, are cone-shaped volcanoes built

from many layers of lava, pumice, ash, and tephra. Because they are built of layers of
viscous material, rather than fluid lava, composite volcanoes tend to form tall peaks
rather than rounded cones.

Shield Volcano - is a type of volcano, usually composed almost entirely of fluid lava flows. It
is named for its low profile, resembling a warrior's shield lying on the ground.

Lava Dome - a lava dome is a circular, mound-shaped protrusion resulting from the slow
extrusion of viscous lava from a volcano.

TYPES OF LAVA:

Fluid Lava - When magma flows or erupts onto Earth's surface, it is called lava. Like solid
rock, magma is a mixture of minerals. It also contains small amounts of dissolved gases
such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, and sulfur.

Viscous Lava - is not very fluid, it cannot flow away from the vent easily when it is
extruded. Instead, it piles up on top of the vent forming a large, dome-shaped mass of material.
Cooled Lava - When lava reaches the surface of the Earth through volcanoes or through
great fissures the rocks that are formed from the lava cooling and hardening are called
extrusive igneous rocks.

Solidified Lava Layers - on the Earth's crust is predominantly silicate minerals: mostly
feldspars, feldspathoids, olivine, pyroxenes, amphiboles, micas and quartz.

Study Note no. 2

EARTHQUAKE

• Epicenter - the point on the earth's surface vertically above the focus of an
Earthquake.

• Hypocenter - is the point of origin of an earthquake or a subsurface

nuclear explosion. In seismology, it is a synonym of the focus. The term hypocenter is also
used as a synonym for ground zero, the surface point directly beneath a nuclear airburst.

• Focus - is the place inside Earth's crust where an earthquake originates. The point on
the Earth's surface directly above the focus is the epicenter

FAULTS - is a fracture or zone of fractures between two blocks of rock

✔Fault Plane - is the plane that represents the fracture surface of a fault

✔Hanging Wall - the block of rock that lies above an inclined

fault or an orebody

✔Foot wall - the block of rock that lies on the underside of an inclined fault or of a mineral
deposit.

✔Dip Slip - refers to the movement of faults along the angle of the fault plane.
Footwall up, hang wall down

✔ Normal Fault - is a dip slip fault where a block that sits on a fault plane called the
hanging wall slip downward with respect to the footwall along dip angle
✔ Reverse fault - is another type of dip slip fault where the
block of earth's pushes upward and along the dip angle
Footwall down, hang wall up

✔ Thrust fault - is a type of Reverse fault where the angle of the

dip is 45° or less

•Strike Slip fault - nearly vertical fault planes or surfaces slide in parallel but
opposite directions
Example: San Andreas Fault in California, USA
Frontward and backward

• Oblique strike-slip - is a combination of a strike-slip and a dip slip. Blocks of Earth's

crust slide horizontally (similar to a strike-slip) and
obliquely up or down from each other (like a dip slip)
Frontward/backward and upward/downward

-Seismograph - or seismometer, is an instrument used to detect and record earthquakes

Study Note no. 3

MOUNTAIN RANGES

· Mountains are large landforms that rise well above the ground and have a steep slopes
and a peak, generally higher than a hill.

• Tectonic plates may move toward each other and push landmasses upward to form
mountains and mountain ranges.

EXAMPLE OF MOUNTAIN:
• Alps
• Mountain Everest
• Sierra Nevada

FOLDED MOUNTAINS - are formed through plate convergence. When

continental plates are subducted beneath another continental plate, the immense forces of
compression fold the crust to develop mountain ranges:
VOLCANIC MOUNTAIN RANGES - usually have isolated peaks that formed over
thousands or millions of years. These structures are constructed from accumulated lava
flows, pyroclastics, and other igneous rocks that piled up over time:

EROSION-FORMED MOUNTAIN RANGES - These types of mountain ranges do not form

because of the earth's internal activity but because of rock erosion or weathering.

DOME MOUNTAIN RANGES - Domes result from the upwarping of tectonic plates and are
not accompanied by collision of plate boundaries.
FAULT-BLOCK MOUNTAIN RANGES - the movement of normal faults causes tensional
forces and can lift large block of crusts to form-block mountains.