You probably know something about volcanoes. Maybe you’ve seen a volcano. Maybe you’ve even visited one. But did you know that volcanoes come in many sizes and shapes, and that they have big impacts on our world? Or that once in a while, a new one even pops up unexpectedly.
Volcanoes form where melted rock (called magma) from deep underground erupts onto Earth’s surface. Once the magma reaches the surface, it’s called lava. Lava then cools and hardens into volcanic rock. Along with lava, volcanoes can erupt steam, ash, and gases.
Where does magma come from?
To understand where magma comes from in the first place, it helps to understand Earth’s layers. Picture a hardboiled egg. Earth’s core is the middle, like the yolk. Above that, like the egg white, is the mantle. Earth’s crust is the very thin, brittle layer on the outside, like the eggshell.
Most magma comes from the upper mantle, just below the crust. Because of pressure, density, or other factors, magma from the mantle can rise into the crust. Magma also forms within the crust under conditions of high heat, extreme pressure, or both.
As it rises, magma can pool in big chambers underground called magma chambers. As pressure builds up in a magma chamber, the magma chamber overflows. Magma rises to the surface through vents and fissures. We know those vents and fissures as volcanoes.
Plate Tectonics
Like so many other features of our dynamic planet, the location of many volcanoes has a lot to do with plate tectonics. That is the interaction of the huge moving plates that make up Earth’s crust.
Where two plates pull apart, magma can well up from the mantle into the space between. That creates volcanoes, such as the ones in Iceland.
Other volcanoes form where one plate dives beneath another as they collide. The plate begins to melt as it sinks deep into the hot crust. Heat and water from the sinking plate rise, causing material above it to melt. That melting creates magma, which rises. That magma can erupt onto the surface as a volcano.
Not all volcanoes form at plate boundaries. Some famous volcanos have formed in the middle of plates. The islands of Hawaii are volcanoes formed by a plume of magma rising from the mantle in the middle of a tectonic plate. As the plate moves, the stationary plume below it has created a chain of volcanoes.
Types of volcanoes
There are several types of volcanoes including cinder cones, stratovolcanoes, shield volcanoes, and fissures.
Cinder Cones
Cinder cones are relatively small, steep volcanoes. They are made from a jumble of lava fragments. This lava typically contains a lot of gas and tends to spatter and explode as it erupts. That breaks it into small chunks called cinders.
Stratovolcanoes
Stratovolcanoes are the big, beautiful cone-shaped volcanoes many people think of when they think “volcano.” Stratovolcanoes are made from many layers of thick lava, ash, and cinders. When they erupt, watch out! There might be a lot of ash, steam, and gas.
Shield Volcanoes
Shield volcanoes are built from layer after layer of runny lava, like pancake batter. They are not steep at all, but can cover a lot of area. Although they don’t usually erupt violently, that runny lava can run a long way!
Fissures
Fissures are long cracks from which lava erupts. Fissure eruptions can be spectacular, as curtains of glowing red lava burst from the ground. These eruptions can appear suddenly and then subside within days.
Prediction
Volcanologists are always learning more about volcanoes. They set up instruments that help detect when magma is on the move inside a volcano. They measure invisible gas emissions that might increase just before an eruption. These scientists hope to predict more precisely when active volcanoes might erupt, so people who live nearby can get safely out of the way.
Written by Laura McCamy
Edited by Beth Geiger, MS Geology
Illustrated by Renee Barthelemy