Related topics: alaska , ash , mount redoubt , eruption , seismic activity
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 volcano
Lost World Found in Papua New Guinea Volcano
Sep 08, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A BBC expedition exploring inside the crater of an extinct volcano in Papua New Guinea (PNG) has discovered a lost world of dozens of weird new species and rare animals, including new frogs, ...
Hawaiian Vog: Where There's Smoke--There is Something Brewing
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Sep 29, 2008 |
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The Kilauea Volcano located on the Big Island of Hawaii is currently registering an Orange Alert which means the volcano is exhibiting a heightened or elevated risk of eruption or is erupting with minor or ...
World's largest telescope to be built in Hawaii
Jul 22, 2009 |
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(AP) -- Hawaii was chosen Tuesday as the site for the world's biggest telescope, a device so powerful that it will allow scientists to see some 13 billion light years away and get a glimpse into the early ...
Dust plays larger than expected role in determining Atlantic temperature
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Mar 26, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The recent warming trend in the Atlantic Ocean is largely due to reductions in airborne dust and volcanic emissions during the past 30 years, according to a new study.
Volcanoes played pivotal role in ancient ice age, mass extinction
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Oct 26, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers here have discovered the pivotal role that volcanoes played in a deadly ice age 450 million years ago.
Geologists blame gas drilling for Indonesia mud disaster
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Oct 30, 2008 |
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A resounding vote of international petroleum geologists from around the globe concluded that the mud volcano was triggered by drilling of a nearby gas exploration well. This may have implications for compensation ...
Mountain on Mars may answer big question
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Mar 04, 2009 |
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The Martian volcano Olympus Mons is about three times the height of Mount Everest, but it's the small details that Rice University professors Patrick McGovern and Julia Morgan are looking at in thinking about ...
Chilean eruption highlights risk from 'rhyolitic' volcanoes
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Oct 07, 2009 |
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Magma from a Chilean volcano shot through Earth's crust at around a metre (3.25 feet) per second, a speed highlighting the perils from so-called rhyolitic volcanoes, scientists reported on Wednesday.
Huge undersea mountain found off Indonesia: scientists
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
May 29, 2009 |
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A massive underwater mountain discovered off the Indonesian island of Sumatra could be a volcano with potentially catastrophic power, a scientist said Friday.
New clues in Easter Island hat mystery
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Sep 07, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of archaeologists has come one step closer to unravelling the mystery of how the famous statues dotting the landscape of a tiny Pacific island acquired their distinctive red hats.
Deep magma matters in volcanic eruption cycle
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Oct 09, 2008 |
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Although the Soufriere Hills volcano on Montserrat exhibits cycles of eruption and quiet, an international team of researchers found that magma is continuously supplied from deep in the crust but that a valve ...
Fledgling mantle plume may be cause of African volcano's unique lava
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Mar 13, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Nyiragongo, an active African volcano, possesses lava unlike any other in the world, which may point toward its source being a new mantle plume says a University of Rochester geochemist. The ...
Marine scientists find massive volcanic cone, new deep-sea animal species
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
May 05, 2009 |
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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 ...
MIT solves longstanding volcanic mystery
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jun 08, 2009 |
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For decades, geologists have been puzzled by the mechanisms that give rise to the kind of volcanoes that form the so-called “ring of fire” around the Pacific Ocean. These arc volcanoes, which account for about 10 to 25 percent ...
Colombia volcano rumbles back to life
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Nov 01, 2009 |
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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 ...
