More about Volcanoes

Liang-Fang Chao

Making Magma
Mantle is not hot enough to melt rock. Decrease the pressure => Rock melting

Add water => Melting at lower temperature.

Mid-ocean lava reduced pressure

Divergent Plate Boundaries

Subduction Zone Water

Rocks Melt due to extra water content. Divergent Plate Boundaries

Subduction Zone
A subducting plate bends and passes under a more buoyant less dense plate. As the subducting plate sinks into the mantle, mud and water are carried along into the mantle. Water combines with the hot mantle rock. That allows the rock to melt at a lower temperature. The magma is less dense so it rises and forms a volcano.

Basalt and Silica

Silica makes magma thick and sticky. Quartz is mineral made of silica. Basalt magma is runny because of its low silica content. What kind of rock is found near Kilauea?
Basalt

Basalt
Basalt is a dark-colored rock that is not silica rich. Formed from thin and runny magma. Mostly coming out of gentle volcanoes near divergent plates. Ocean floor is mostly covered in Basalt.

Silica Rich Rock

Silica rich rock is light in color, thick, sticky and less dense than basalt magma. When cooled, the silican-rich magma forms granite and other closely-related rocks. The famous granite domes of Yosemite were formed as silica-rich magma rose through the edge of the subduction zone that no longer exists. The surrounding land later eroded away.

Silica is not dense

Continents are made of granite (and andesite). Silica-rich granite is not as dense as the basalt of the ocean floor. This is why continental plates float high on the lower mantle.

Silica versus Gas

Shield Volcano basalt and gabbro rocks Cinder Cone Volcano

basalt and gabbro rocks

obsidian rock

Composite Volcano

granite, andesite, pumice, scoria rocks, ash

Three Types of Volcanoes

Low silica magma produces a shield volcano. A tall cone, or composite volcano forms from thick, sticky magma because it is silica-rich. A cinder cone is formed by lava cinders around the vent when magma has high levels of dissolved gas.

Shield Volcanoes
Low silica and low gas magma produces a shield volcano. Because low silica magma is runny, it cant build up a tall volcano. The types of eruptions that occur at shield volcanoes have been named Hawaiian eruptions. Types of Rock: basalt (cools slowly), gabbro (cools quickly)

Kilauea in Hawaii

Shield Volcanoes
Example: Kilauea in Hawaii (3km in diameter). Fernandin in the Galpagos islands, Ecuador. Iceland. East Africa. Shield volcanoes and volcanic vents have been found on Mars, Venus, and subsurface hotspots on Europa.

Three enormous volcanoes on Mars (300km in diameter)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shield_volcano

Cinder Cone
When magma has high levels of dissolved gas, gas bubbles out as it reaches the volcano vent. The lava cinders form a cone around the vent called a cinder cone. It could be rich in silica or low in silica. Formed in the caldera (area around the vent). Simply a pile of rock bits.

Fire Fountain

Capulin Volcano, Mexico

Piracutin Cinder Cone

The most famous cinder cone, Paricutin, grew out of a corn field in Mexico in 1943 from a new vent. Eruptions continued for 9 years, built the cone to a height of 424 meters. Like most cinder cones, Parcutin is believed to be a monogenetic volcano, which means that once it has finished erupting, it will never erupt again.

During 1943 eruption http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinder_cone

Composite Volcanoes
Layers of lava and ash. Also called stratovolcano (strato= layers). Most common. Forms from thick, sticky magma because it is silica-rich. Violent eruptions. Rock Types: as in granite (cools slowly), rhyolite (cools quickly) , andesite, pumice (high gas content) or obsidian (low gas content).

Mount Fuju in Japan

Composite Volcanoes
Common at subduction zones, forming chains along plate tectonic boundaries where oceanic crust is drawn under continental crust. (Convergent plate boundaries) Krakatoa, Indonesia Example: Krakatoa, Indonesia. Vesuvius, Italy. like Mount St. Helens, USA. Mount Pinatubo, Philippine.

Lava with high gas

The cone may explode near the vent, throwing a column of gas and lava bits high into the atmosphere. The lava bits puff up and rip apart as the dissolved gas expands inside each bit.

Lava flow is not deadly, but

Flowing lava or even splatter thrown out of erupting craters kill relatively few people. It is usually possible to run, or even walk away from most lava flows! The real killers are much more frightening.
travel at over 100 miles per hour, move across land and sea, flow uphill as well as down, rip trees up by their roots, flatten buildings and kill people and animals instantly.

http://www.geography-site.co.uk/pages/physical/earth/volcanoes/pyroclastic%20flows.html

The True Killers are

pyroclastic flows

Merapi, Indonesian, 2006 (volcanoes.usgs.gov)

and

lahars

Pyroclastic Flow
Pyroclastic flows are clouds of hot volcanic gases, ash and volcanic bombs that race down a composite volcano's sides at speeds over 100 miles per hour. Pyroclasts are loose clumps of particles of lava. The speed force, and heat of the flow make it extremely destructive. poisonous gasses at temperatures hot enough to burn your lungs away. Examples: Vesuvius, Italy, 29AD. Krakatoa, Indonesia. St Helens.

Mt. Unzen, Japan

On June 3, 1991, the volcano erupted violently. A pyroclastic flow reached 4.5 kilometres (2.8 mi) from the crater and claimed the lives of 43 scientists and journalists. Between 1991 and 1994 the volcano generated at least 10,000 small pyroclastic flows, destroying about 2,000 houses.

Radar Image from Space

Lahars
Lahars are volcanic mud flows created when pyroclastic flows become mixed with water during a composite volcano eruption. The ash and water mix and can form a type of mud that sets like concrete once it stops flowing. Water can come from within the volcano or surrounding area as the ground explodes, or from the melting of snow and ice on the flanks of the volcano.

St Helens, 1982 pumice and ash is sent 9 miles into the air and result in a lahar. ((vulcan.wr.usgs.gov)

Lahar by Casita volcano

In 1998 at the Casita volcano in Nicaragua a lahar claimed over 2,500 lives. As it swept over the towns of El Porvenir and Rolando Rodriguez the only warning was a noise like helicopters or thunder, and ground tremors that some thought were earthquakes. The towns were totally covered by the mud in less than 3 minutes, killing almost everybody.

A large boulder carried by the lahar. A plaque is placed on it to honor those who were killed.

Geysers
Geysers and hot springs are the result of water in the ground coming in contact with magma-heated rock below the surface.

Old Faithful
Old Faithful in Yellowstone shoots water 100 to 200 feet high every 35 to 120 minutes.

Old Faithful, near Calistoga, California shoots water 60 to 100 feet every 30 minutes.

Silica versus Gas

Shield Volcano basalt and gabbro rocks Cinder Cone Volcano

basalt and gabbro rocks

obsidian rock

Composite Volcano

granite, andesite, pumice, scoria rocks, ash

Igneous Rocks
Igneous rocks are formed as melted rock cools and crystalizes. Their crystals are tightly locked together. Melted rock that cools quickly produces small crystals formed on Earths surface. Slow cooling process produces larger crystals rocks formed from underground magma.

Low Silica Magma

Basalt and gabbro are made from the same low silica magma. Basalt has fine crystals - surface-formed rock. Gabbro has large crystals formed below earths surface.

basalt

gabbros

Silicon-Rich
Granite, rhyolite, and obsidian all come from the same silicarich magma. Granite cools underground and has large crystals. Rhyolite cools on the surface and has fine crystals. Obsidian cools so fast that it has no crystals and is often called volcanic glass.

granite

rhyolite

obsidian

Granite
Granite makes up continental plates. Formed from thick, sticky magma, highsilica. Less dense; thus, float. It has large crystals. Mount Rushmore is a famous granite sculptured mountain.
Half Dome, Yosemite

Basalt
Basalt makes up oceanic plates. Ocean floor is mostly covered in Basalt. Formed from thin, runny magma, low silica. More dense; thus, sink. It has fine crystals. Mostly coming out of gentle volcanoes near divergent plate boundaries.

Pumice
High-Silica magma with dissolved gas. When the gas in the magma puffs up before the magma cools to a solid, it produces pumice. Pumice is so light that it floats.
Owens River Valley, California