Introduction A volcano is a vent through which molten rock escapes to the earth's surface.

Un like other mountains, which are pushed up from below, volcanoes are built by sur face accumulation of their eruptive products - layers of lava, ashflows, and ash . When pressure from gases within the molten rock becomes too great, an eruption occurs. Volcanic hazards include gases, lava and pyroclastic flows, landslides, earthquakes, and explosive eruptions. Let's first take a look at the earth. The earth is made up of 4 main layers-the inner core, the outer core, the mantle and the crust. The crust is where we live , on the surface of the earth. Below the crust lies the mantle, which is made up of solids, liquids and gases. The lithosphere is made up of the crust and the upper most layer of the mantle, and is divided up into 16 major plates. As the plates of the lithosphere shift, they disrupt portions and pockets of the mantle below it. This disruption causes steam and gasses within the mantle to into liquid magna-these pockets of liquid magma are called "hot spots". The liquid magma then makes its way up through th e lithosphere and erupts from onto the earth as lava. The places where they erup t are called volcanoes. Where these plates meet are where most of the earth's volcanoes are located. Pla tes can shift towards each other, away from each other, or they can shift side b y side. The way in which these plates move in relation to each other cause the d ifferent types of physical conditions that create volcanoes and earthquakes. Parts of a Volcano This cross-section shows the parts of a volcano. A conduit feeds magma to the su rface. Near the surface, the gas expands and fragments the lava into ash. Some m agma passes through dikes to feed vents. Some magma intrudes parallel to layers to make sills. Image source: http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/vw_hyperexchange/parts.html Main Vent The Main vent is the path taken by the liquid rock from the Magma Chamber to the surface. It is like a pipe up which the lava can flow. Sometimes the main vent has branches which, if they reach the surface may form Secondary Cones or Fumero les. When a volcano erupts, lava, gasses and fragments of rock travel right up the ma in vent and are thrown out through the crater. When the eruption finishes the la va may drop back down the pipe or form a lava lake in the crater. Lava Flow When magma reaches the surface it is called lava. ( pronounced 'larver'). If the level of lava in the crater overflows the rim, it will begin to flow down the s ides of the volcano. Different types of lava are more runny than others and the most runny types can flow down the slopes at over 30 miles per hour. Although the rock is liquid, is is very dense. If you stood on it, you wouldn't sink, but you would burn. The rock surface may seem to have cooled and set, but below the very thin crust the lava can remain liquid for a long time, at tempera tures of 500 or more. Ash and Lava Strata The volcano in the diagram is made of layers, coloured light and dark grey. Thes e are the layers of ash and lava which have been thrown out of the volcano durin g its life. Ash consists of small fragments of rock, some as fine as tiny dust p articles, other chunks being bigger than your fist. The layers of lava are old l

ava flows which cooled and set as they flowed down the volcano. The volcanic ash is usually thrown out of the volcano before the lava. It settles to the ground and forms a steep sided pile. You can see the same effect by pouring salt onto a flat surface. It will form a pyramid, the steepness of which is determined by t he size and shape of the individual salt grains. The ash is soft and is easily w orn away by wind and rain. The layers of lava which flow over the ash protect it from erosion and thus allow the volcano to keep growing upwards. Secondary Cone When the Main Vent develops branches, the volcano may begin to grow secondary co nes. The rock and ash layers which make up the volcano are often cracked and wea kened by the explosions that occur during eruptions. If these cracks form a path from the main vent to the surface, magma is able to move up the new pipe and re ach the surface. As it erupts the ash and lava is sprayed into the air like a fo untain. Splashes of lava mix with the ash to form a new cone. Given time, a seco ndary cone may divert so much of the magma that it becomes the main vent and the original cone becomes less important. Magma Chamber Deep below the Earth's surface, between 100 and 200km down, the rocks are semi l iquid. In certain parts of the world there are 'hot spots', areas where the rock s are hotter than elsewhere. These areas are believed to be the sources of the m agma which rises to the surface via volcanoes. Although diagrams often show the Magma Chamber as having well defined sides, it is very unlikely that they are li ke that. It is much more likely that the rocks slowly cool as distance from the hot spot increases, so the rock turns from liquid, to semi-molten, to thick stic ky stuff and finally becomes solid. Fumerole A fumerole is a crack in the surface through which steam and gas can escape. The magma below the surface heats water to the point where it turns to steam and is able to dissolve minerals from the surrounding rock. As the gas reaches the sur face it is both hot and under pressure. It cools and expands, depositing the dis solved minerals around the vent. In some parts of the world local industries hav e built up collecting the sulphur deposited around fumerole vents. Crater A volcanic crater is a funnel shaped hollow at the top of the vent. It is formed as lava, gas and ash are blasted upwards from the main vent. Material falls bac k down to earth around the vent and slowly piles up forming a rim around it. The inside of the crater is kept clear by the force of upward moving material const antly removing any debris which falls there. Ash and Gas Clouds Gas escapes all the time from active volcanoes. It may be just steam, ( 90% of a ll volcanic gas is water and carbon dioxide ) but more often is water vapour con taining dissolved minerals such as sulphur. During an eruption the volume of gas released increases considerably, tonnes of material being thrown into the atmos phere, forming a mixture of gas, ash and rock fragments. Along with the smaller particles there are often larger chunks of liquid rock, thrown high into the air by the force of the eruption. These pieces of rock cool as they spin through th e air, forming rod shaped chunks which are called 'volcanic bombs'. Dangerous th ough the bombs are, they are not usually the cause of most casualties. The hot a sh and poisonous gasses kill many more people. Types of Volcanoes Volcanologists have classified volcanoes into groups based on the shape of the v olcano, the materials they are built of, and the way the volcano erupts.

The groups are: Composite Volcanoes (also called strato volcanoes) Shield Volcanoes (also called shields) Cinder Cones Fissure Caldera

Composite Volcanoes These volcanoes are typically tens of miles across and ten thousand or more feet in height. As illustrated in the figure above, they have moderately steep sides and sometimes have small craters in their summits. Volcanologists call these "s trato-" or composite volcanoes because they consist of layers of solid lava flow s mixed with layers of sand- or gravel-like volcanic rock called cinders or volc anic ash. Shield Volcanoes This type of volcano can be hundreds of miles across and many tens of thousands of feet high. The individual islands of the state of Hawaii are simply large shi eld volcanoes. Mauna Loa, a shield volcano on the "big" island of Hawaii, is the largest single mountain in the world, rising over 30,000 feet above the ocean f loor and reaching almost 100 miles across at its base. Shield volcanoes have low slopes and consist almost entirely of frozen lavas. They almost always have lar ge craters at their summits. Cinder Cones As you might expect from the name, these volcanoes consist almost entirely of lo ose, grainy cinders and almost no lava. They are small volcanoes, usually only a bout a mile across and up to about a thousand feet high. They have very steep si des and usually have a small crater on top. Fissure In this type, there is no central crater at all. Instead, giant cracks open in t he ground and expel vast quantities of lava that spread far and wide to form hug e pools that can cover almost everything around. When these pools of lava cool a nd solidify, the surface remains mostly flat. Since the source cracks are usuall y buried, there is often nothing "volcano-like" to see--only a flat plain. Images reproduced from: Wheeling Jesuit University/Center for Educational Techno logies Caldera Calderas, which are simply circular depressions, are found on the summits of man y volcanoes. "Giant" calderas are the largest of these: huge craters up to many tens of miles across. Giant Calderas form by collapse (see animation) in giganti c eruptions that spew volcanic rocks out hundreds or even a thousand miles in al l directions. Sometimes the calderas are so filled with lava and volcanic ash th at there is no recognizable depression at all. These can only be found by carefu lly locating the big fractures or "faults" in the ground that mark the edges of the caldera. When is a volcano considers active, dorman or extinct? There are over 1,000 volcanoes in our world. Classifying a volcano as active, do rmant, or extinct is a subjective and inexact exercise. A volcano is generally c onsidered active if it has erupted in historic time. This definition, however, i s rather ambiguous, because recorded history varies from thousands of years in E urope and the Middle East, to only a few hundred years in other regions of the w orld, like the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Scientists generally cons ider a volcano active if it is currently erupting, or exhibiting unrest through

earthquakes, uplift, and/or new gas emissions. The Smithsonian Institution's cat alog of active volcanoes, recognizes 539 volcanoes with historic eruptions. In a ddition, there are 529 volcanoes that have not erupted in historic times, but wh ich exhibit clear evidence of eruption in the past 10,000 years. These latter vo lcanoes are probably best considered "dormat," since they have the potential to erupt again. Types of Volcanic Eruptions During an episode of activity, a volcano commonly displays a distinctive pattern of behavior. Some mild eruptions merely discharge steam and other gases, wherea s other eruptions extrude quantities of lava. The most spectacular eruptions con sist of violent explosions that blast great clouds of gas-laden debris into the atmosphere.

The type of volcanic eruption is often labeled with the name of a well-known vol cano where characteristic behavior is similarhence the use of such terms as Stromb olian, Vulcanian, Vesuvian, Pelean, Hawaiian, and others. Some volcanoes may exhibit one characteristic type of eruption during an interval of activityothers may dis play an entire sequence of types. In a Strombolian-type eruption observed during the 1965 activity of Irazu Volcano in Costa Rica, huge clots of molten lava burst from the summit crater to form lu minous arcs through the sky. Collecting on the flanks of the cone, lava clots co mbined to stream down the slopes in fiery rivulets. In contrast, the eruptive activity of Parcutin Volcano in 1947 demonstrated a Vulc anian-type eruption, in which a dense cloud of ash-laden gas explodes from the cr ater and rises high above the peak. Steaming ash forms a whitish cloud near the upper level of the cone. In a Vesuvian eruption, as typified by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Italy in A.D. 79, great quantities of ash-laden gas are violently discharged to form caul iflower-shaped cloud high above the volcano. In a Pelan or Nue Ardente (glowing cloud) eruption, such as occurred on the Mayon Volc ano in the Philippines in 1968, a large quantity of gas, dust, ash, and incandes cent lava fragments are blown out of a central crater, fall back, and form tongu e-like, glowing avalanches that move downslope at velocities as great as 100 mil es 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 St. Pier re during the 1902 eruption of Mont Pele on Martinique, Lesser Antilles. The most powerful eruptions are called Plinian and involve the explosive ejection of relatively viscous lava. Large plinian eruptionssuch as during 18 May 1980 at Mount St. Helens or, more recently, during 15 June 1991 at Pinatubo in the Phili ppinescan 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 deadly p yroclastic flows (nues ardentes) are also commonly associated with plinian eruption s. Hawaiian eruptions may occur along fissures or fractures that serve as linear vent s, such as during the eruption of Mauna Loa Volcano in Hawaii in 1950; or they m ay occur at a central vent such as during the 1959 eruption in Kilauea Iki Crate r of Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii. In fissure-type eruptions, molten, incandescent la va spurts from a fissure on the volcano's rift zone and feeds lava streams that flow downslope. In central-vent eruptions, a fountain of fiery 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.

Phreatic (or steam-blast) eruptions are driven by explosive expanding steam resultin g 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 fr agments of preexisting solid rock from the volcanic conduit; no new magma is eru pted. Phreatic activity is generally weak, but can be quite violent in some case s, such as the 1965 eruption of Taal Volcano, Philippines, and the 1975-76 activ ity at La Soufrire, Guadeloupe (Lesser Antilles). The eruptive products are highly variaible and largely dependent on the composit ion, viscosity, and gas content of the erupting magma. Lava flows, for example, are more common in relatively non-explosive basaltic eruptions associated with s heild volcanoes, scoria cones, and fissures. On the other hand, pyroclastic flow s, lahars and voluminous tephra deposits are more common in explosive andesiticto-rhyolitic eruptions associated with stratovolcanoes. Gaseous emissions are al so examined, as are their harmful effects on both local and global scales. (Imag e courtesy of USGS) Volcanoes in the Caribbean The Caribbean region has its own tectonic plate, called the Caribbean plate. Tho ugh one of the smallest plates on the Earth's outer shell, and one of the younge st, a mere fifty million years old, the Caribbean plate has always been active. In the Lesser Antilles, the North American plate is pushed under the Caribbean p late. The westernmost islands form an arc that reaches from just south of the An egada Passage (near the British Virgin Islands) almost to South America. This st ring of islands has been referred to as the Volcanic Caribbees. Since the arriva l of Europeans, these islands have produced some 26 volcanic eruptions, ten subm arine eruptions (all from a rising underwater volcano north of Grenada known as Kick'em Jenny), and 11 volcanic seismic crises (clusters of earthquakes around a volcano).

Montserrat Montserrat is a typical volcanic island. It began as a volcano on the ocean floo r and grew over the last, few million years into the small, mountainous island t hat it is today. Although, disturbed by volcanic eruptions from time to time, th is "new" island was colonized by plants, birds, and animals typical of all the C aribbean islands. The Amerinds, Montserrat's earliest inhabitants, arrived on the island about 200 0 years ago. There are no records of volcanic activity until the Europeans arriv e. Let's flash forward, then, to the early 1600s and see the island's volcano pu t on a display for Montserrat's new European settlers. They learned first-hand w hy the soil was so rich. Montserrat is truly and entirely a volcanic island. Alt hough only some 11 miles long, it rapidly ascends to 3,000 feet at its highest p oint, and it has three volcanic formations, Silver Hill, Centre Hills, and Soufr iere Hills. Soufriere Hills is the youngest. For centuries, Soufriere Hills slept peacefully beneath nature's bounty. Deep-gr een rainforest grew along its slopes, its rivers descended to the sea, and indig enous animals roamed freely, finding ample food and shelter. For all of these re asons, Montserrat, located about one-third of the way down the Lesser Antillean chain, became known as the Emerald Isle of the Caribbean. At different times, is land farmers relied on sugarcane, limes, and sea-island cotton for their livelih ood. More recently, internationally known rock stars traveled there to record th eir music. Occasional small earthquakes would startle the islanders, but it wasn 't until recently that scientists connected the earthquake rumblings with possib le volcanic eruptions.