Volcano
hideA 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. The word volcano is derived from the name of Vulcano island off Sicily. In turn, it was named after Vulcan, the Roman god of fire.
Volcanoes are generally found where tectonic plates are diverging or converging. 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.
For more information about Volcano, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with volcanic activity
Study uses satellite imagery to identify active magma systems in East Africa's Rift Valley
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Nov 04, 2009 |
4.5 / 5 (4) |
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A team from the University of Miami, University of El Paso and University of Rochester have employed Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) images compiled over a decade to study volcanic activity ...
Volcanic eruptions may split Africa: scientists
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Nov 03, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (8) |
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Volcanic activity may split the African continent in two owing to a recent geological crack in northeastern Ethiopia, researchers said on Tuesday.
Colombia volcano rumbles back to life
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Nov 01, 2009 |
4.4 / 5 (9) |
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Officials in southern Colombia have issued a code orange alert for the newly-active Galeras volcano which they said could erupt in a matter of days or weeks, according to the state-run Geological and Mining ...
Kepler and the Search for Life in Our Galaxy
Sep 15, 2009 |
4.3 / 5 (9) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- There are so many stars in our galaxy that even if planets with complex life (animals and plants) are rare - say one for every billion stars - there could still be dozens here in the Milky ...
The greenhouse gas that saved the world
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Aug 18, 2009 |
3.6 / 5 (9) |
7
When Planet Earth was just cooling down from its fiery creation, the sun was faint and young. So faint that it should not have been able to keep the oceans of earth from freezing. But fortunately for the creation of life, ...
Mars, methane and mysteries
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Aug 10, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (10) |
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Mars may not be as dormant as scientists once thought. The 2004 discovery of methane means that either there is life on Mars, or that volcanic activity continues to generate heat below the martian surface. ...
Expanding Spot on Venus Puzzles Astronomers
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Aug 04, 2009 |
4.2 / 5 (30) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The expanding spot discovered on Venus last month may not have garnered as much attention as the meteor impact with Jupiter, but its cause is certainly more puzzling. ...
New map hints at Venus's wet, volcanic past (w/ Video)
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Jul 14, 2009 |
4.1 / 5 (8) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Venus Express has charted the first map of Venus's southern hemisphere at infrared wavelengths. The new map hints that our neighbouring world may once have been more Earth-like, with both, ...
Mystery mechanism drove global warming 55 million years ago
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jul 13, 2009 |
4.3 / 5 (25) |
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A runaway spurt of global warming 55 million years ago turned Earth into a hothouse but how this happened remains worryingly unclear, scientists said on Monday.
Volcanic activity on Mars could offer clues to planet's history
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Jul 13, 2009 |
4 / 5 (4) |
1
From literature to the Big Screen, the fascination with the planet Mars has taken many forms. In the geology department at Mercyhurst College, that attraction currently surrounds three of the planet's oldest ...
A Hidden Drip, Drip, Drip Beneath Earth's Surface
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
May 26, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (13) |
4
(PhysOrg.com) -- There are very few places in the world where dynamic activity taking place beneath Earth's surface goes undetected.
Marine scientists find massive volcanic cone, new deep-sea animal species
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
May 05, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (10) |
3
Scientists who have just returned from an expedition to an erupting undersea volcano near the Island of Guam report that the volcano appears to be continuously active, has grown considerably in size during ...
Galapagos volcano erupts, could threaten wildlife
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Apr 12, 2009 |
4.7 / 5 (27) |
8
(AP) -- Ecuador officials say a volcano is erupting in the Galapagos Islands and could harm unique wildlife.
DNA duplication: A mechanism for 'survival of the fittest'
Mar 23, 2009 |
4 / 5 (1) |
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VIB researchers connected to Ghent University, Belgium, have discovered that DNA duplications have given plants an evolutionary advantage. This mechanism enabled plants -- in contrast to the dinosaurs -- to survive the Cretaceous-Tertiary ...
Swarm of Yellowstone earthquakes doesn't pose risk, scientists say
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jan 07, 2009 |
4.3 / 5 (3) |
1
When you have 400 earthquakes on top of one of the largest supervolcanoes on Earth, people pay attention.
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