Volcano: Types, Formation, Rocks Formed
A volcano is a vent or fissure in Earth's crust through which lava, ash, rock and gases erupt. A volcano is also a mountain formed by the accumulation of these eruptive products. Let's take a look at how volcanoes form:
Earth's crust is 40 to 250 miles (64 to 402 kilometers) thick. It is broken up into 14 major and 38 smaller pieces called tectonic plates. These plates float on a layer of magma — semi-liquid rock and dissolved gases. At the boundaries of these plates — where they move past, are pushed under, or move away from each other — magma, which is lighter than the surrounding solid rock, is often able to force its way up through cracks and fissures. Magma can explode from the vent, or it can flow out of the volcano like an overflowing cup. Magma that has erupted is called lava.
Principal types of volcanoes
1
Cinder cone volcanoes
Also called scoria cones are the
most common type of volcano and are the symmetrical cone shaped volcanoes we
typically think of. They may occur as single volcanoes or as secondary
volcanoes on the sides of stratovolcanoes or shield volcanoes. Airborne
fragments of lava, called tephra, are ejected from a single vent. The lava
cools rapidly and builds up around the vent, forming a crater at the summit.
Cinder cone volcanoes are fairly small, generally only about 300 feet (91
meters) tall and not rising more than 1,200 feet (366 meters). They can build
up over short periods of a few months or years.2 Stratovolcanoes are also called composite volcanoes because they are built of layers of alternating lava flow, ash and blocks of unmelted stone. They are larger than cinder cones, rising up to 8,000 feet (2,438 meters). Stratovolcanoes result from a conduit system of vents leading from a magma reservoir beneath the surface. When dormant, they typically have steep concave sides that sweep together at the top around a relatively small crater.
Stratovolcanoes erupt with great violence. Pressure builds in the magma chamber as gases, under immense heat and pressure, are dissolved in the liquid rock. When the magma reaches the conduits the pressure is released and the gases explode, like soda spewing out of a soda can that you shook up and opened suddenly. Because they form in a system of underground conduits, stratovolcanoes may blow out the sides of the cone as well as the summit crater.
Stratovolcanoes are considered the most violent eruptions. Mount St. Helens, in Washington state, is a stratovolcano that erupted on May 18, 1980. Approximately 230 square miles (596 square kilometers) of forest was completely obliterated and 57 people were killed. Ash was blown up into the atmosphere and fell over 11 states.
3 Shield volcanoes are huge, gently sloping volcanoes built of very thin lava spreading out in all directions from a central vent. They have wide bases several miles in diameter with steeper middle slopes and a flatter summit. The gentle convex slopes give them an outline like a medieval knight’s shield. Eruptions are not generally explosive, more like liquid overflowing around the edges of a container. The world’s largest volcano, Mauna Loa in Hawaii, is a shield volcano. Mauna Loa is about 55,770 feet (17,000 meters) from its base beneath the ocean to the summit, which is 13,681 feet (4,170 meters) above sea level. It is also one of the Earth’s most active volcanoes and is carefully monitored. The most recent eruption was in 1984.
4 Lava domes are built up when the lava is too viscous to flow. A bubble or plug of cooling rock forms over a fissure. This cooler, thick lava usually rises near the end of an explosive eruption and lava domes often form within the craters of stratovolcanoes. Mount St. Helens has several well-defined lava domes inside the crater.
Cooling takes place in the crust and not over the
surface. E.g. Granite, Gabbro, Diorite etc. Intrusive igneous rocks are
classed into the following types according to their forms.
Different Rocks Formed By Lava Cooling
- Batholiths: magmatic material cools in the deeper depth in the form of a large dome. These are granitic bodies. They sometimes appear on the earth surface when the denudation processes remove the overlying materials.
- Laccoliths: Large dome shaped intrusive bodies with a level base and pipe-like conduit from below. Resembles a composite volcano structure, but beneath the earth. (Eg: Karnataka Plateau)
- Lapoliths: They are saucer shaped, concave to the sky.
- Phacoliths: Wavy materials which have a definite conduit to source beneath.
- Sheets/ sills: They are the near horizontal bodies of intrusive igneous rocks. Thinner ones are called as sheets and while thick horizontal deposits are called sills.
- Dykes: When the lava comes out through cracks and fissures, they solidify almost perpendicular to the ground to form wall like structures called dykes. (Eg: Deccan traps in Maharastra region).
Effects of volcanoes
There are many different types of volcanic eruptions and
associated activity: phreatic eruptions (steam-generated eruptions),
explosive eruption of high-silica lava (e.g., rhyolite),
effusive eruption of low-silica lava (e.g., basalt), pyroclastic
flows, lahars
(debris flow) and carbon dioxide emission. All of these activities can
pose a hazard to humans. Earthquakes, hot springs,
fumaroles, mud pots and geysers often
accompany volcanic activity.Volcanic gases
The concentrations of different volcanic gases can vary considerably from one volcano to the next. Water vapor is typically the most abundant volcanic gas, followed by carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide. Other principal volcanic gases include hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen chloride, and hydrogen fluoride. A large number of minor and trace gases are also found in volcanic emissions, for example hydrogen, carbon monoxide, halocarbons, organic compounds, and volatile metal chlorides.Large, explosive volcanic eruptions inject water vapor (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), hydrogen chloride (HCl), hydrogen fluoride (HF) and ash (pulverized rock and pumice) into the stratosphere to heights of 16–32 kilometres (10–20 mi) above the Earth's surface. The most significant impacts from these injections come from the conversion of sulfur dioxide to sulfuric acid (H2SO4), which condenses rapidly in the stratosphere to form fine sulfate aerosols. The SO2 emissions alone of two different eruptions are sufficient to compare their potential climatic impact.The aerosols increase the Earth's albedo—its reflection of radiation from the Sun back into space—and thus cool the Earth's lower atmosphere or troposphere; however, they also absorb heat radiated up from the Earth, thereby warming the stratosphere. Several eruptions during the past century have caused a decline in the average temperature at the Earth's surface of up to half a degree (Fahrenheit scale) for periods of one to three years; sulfur dioxide from the eruption of Huaynaputina probably caused the Russian famine of 1601–1603.