A volcano is a vent or fissure in the planet's crust through which lava, ash, rock and gases erupt. A volcano is a mountain formed by eruptive products.

The greatest mass extinction in Earth's history occurred about 250 million years ago, when the Permian mass extinction wiped out 90 percent of marine life and 75 percent of terrestrial species.

Mount Vesuvius, which erupted in 79 A.D., wiping out the town of Pompeii and burying many of its inhabitants, is one of the most famous volcanic eruptions of all time.

Although the moon and Mars have long been inactive, there are still active volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io and on Mercury, Venus and another of Jupiter's moons. Researchers are trying to find ways to predict volcanic eruptions by analyzing clues such as gases and crystals.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the Earth is 3 to 37 miles thick. A paper by Christopher Harrison at the University of Miami states that it is broken up into seven major and 152 smaller pieces called tectonic plates. The largest of these is the Pacific Plate, which is 103,000,000 square kilometers.

The plates are on a layer of rock and gases. At the edges of the plates, where they move past, magma can force its way up through cracks and fissures. Magma can explode from the vent, or it can flow out of the volcano. There is a volcano that has erupted.

Mount Etna

Types of volcanoes

symmetrical cone-shaped volcanoes are the most common type of volcano, according to San Diego State University. They can be either a single volcano or a secondary volcano on the side of a shield volcano. The tephra are ejected from a single vent.

cinders that build up around the vent form a crater at the summit as lava cools rapidly and falls. Cinder cone volcanoes are small, about 300 feet tall and not rising more than 1,200 feet. They can build up over a short period of time.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, calderas are made of layers of alternating lava flow, ash and blocks of unmelted stone. They are larger than cinder cones and rise up to 8,000 feet. There is a conduit system of vents leading from a magma reservoir beneath the surface. They have steep sides that sweep together at the top of a small crater.

The largest percentage of the Earth's individual volcanoes is 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 800-211-2519 According to Oregon State University, these lavas allow gas pressures to build up to high levels, which in turn causes these volcanoes to explode.

There can be great violence when a volcano erupts. Gases are dissolved in the liquid rock as pressure builds in the magma chamber. According to San Diego State University, when the magma reaches the conduits, the pressure is released and the gases explode. Because they form in a system of underground conduits, they can blow out the sides of the cone.

The most violent volcanic cones are the stravolcanoes. On May 18, 1980, a volcano erupted in Washington state. The entire forest was destroyed and 57 people were killed. Over the course of the day, winds blew 520 million tons of ash eastward across the United States and caused complete darkness in Spokane, Washington, 250 miles from the volcano.

A shield volcano is a huge, gently sloping volcano built of thin lava and moving in all directions from a central vent. The bases are several miles in diameter and have a flatter summit. The slopes give them an outline similar to a medieval knight's shield. The eruptions of these volcanoes are not usually very powerful, but they are more like liquid overflowing around the edges of a container.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the largest volcano in the world is in Hawaii. The base of the mountain is 55,770 feet from the ocean to the summit, which is 4,170 feet above sea level. It is one of the most active volcanoes on the planet and is monitored by the National Park Service. The most recent eruption was in 1984.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, lava domes are built up when the lava isn't flowing. A plug of cooling rock forms over a fissure. This thick lava usually rises near the end of an eruption and lava domes can be found in the craters. According to NASA, Mount St. Helens has several lava domes.

Other volcanic landforms

volcanic activity is responsible for several other landforms, including symmetrical volcanoes such as Mount Fuji in Japan.

A caldera is a depression formed when a volcano collapses into a void. San Diego State University says there are three types. A crater lake caldera is the first type. This is the result of a violent eruption of a volcano. A series of gradual collapses result in a ring pattern in basaltic calderas. They can be found at the summit of shield volcanoes, such as the craters at the tops of Mauna Loa and Kilauea. calderas are the largest volcanic structures They are the result of catastrophic eruptions that dwarf any eruptions ever recorded by humans.

The name of the caldera type is Crater Lake in Oregon. The deepest lake in North America is Crater Lake, which has a water depth of 600 m. The lake level is 600 m higher than the caldera walls. The eruption and collapse of the ancestral Mt. formed a large depression. According to San Diego State University, Mazama was about 6850 years ago.

Volcanic plugs are formed when the hard dense rock in the fissure of a volcano is solidified. This can result in dramatic landmarks such as Ship Rock in New Mexico and Devil's Tower in Wyoming, which were used in Steven Spielberg's sci-fi film "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."

Tuff cones are shallow, flat-floored craters that scientists think formed as a result of a violent expansion of magmatic gas or steam, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Natural lakes can be formed from maars ranging in size from 200 to 6,500 feet (60 to 1,980 meters) across and from 30 to 650 feet (9 to 198 meters) deep. The western United States and the Eifel region of Germany are geologically young volcanic regions.

Shield volcanoes may erupt along lines of fissures rather than a central vent spilling liquid lava in successive layers. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, these layers form broad plateaus over time. There are deep canyons that expose the layers of rock.

This kind of formation can be found in southern Idaho and southeastern Washington.

Volcanoes in history

Lava flow

Lava flowing from Hawaii's Kilauea volcano. (Image credit: Kris Taeleman via Getty Images)

Mount Vesuvius is located in southern Italy and is one of the most famous volcanoes. It has erupted many times in the past 2,000 years. The A.D. 79 eruption buried Pompeii, which made Vesuvius famous, but another eruption in 1631 killed about 3,000 people and caused massive amounts of damage.

In Sicily, Mount Etna sent a river of lava flooding through Catania, killing 20,000 people there and in the surrounding region, according to NASA.

According to Oregon State University, the eruption of Mount Skaptar caused a famine that killed 25% of the country's people.

The eruption of Mount Tambora on Sumbawa Island in Indonesia killed at least 10,000 people. The year without a summer in Europe and North America was caused by the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991.

Krakatoa erupted in an explosion that was heard thousands of miles away. A 130-foot tsunami devastated hundreds of villages, including Java and Sumatra, after a 70 pound boulders landed on islands 50 miles away, according to San Diego State University. There were about 36,000 deaths. Dust high in the atmosphere caused the moon to appear blue and green for two years.

The town of Saint-Pierre was smothered in deadly gas and hot ash by Mount Pelée on the island of Martinique.

In 1980, Mount St. Helens in Washington state blew 1,300 feet off its top, killing 57 people and causing a midday darkness in towns 85 miles away.

In 1991, Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted and killed more than 800 people. The air base was buried 15 miles away by the material ejected from the cataclysmic. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, nearly every bridge within 18 miles of Mount Pinatubo was destroyed.

The cloud of sulfuric acid climbed to more than 19 miles in the sky. The entire planet was covered by a cloud over the next several weeks. The particles reflected sunlight and cooled the Earth.

U.S. volcanoes

According to the National Park Service, Lassen Peak was interrupted between 1914 and 1917, causing no deaths. Lassen is one of the most likely to erupt again.

The Long Valley Caldera is a depression in the Sierra Nevada Mountains caused by an eruption 700,000 years ago. The molten rock from the explosion settled more than a mile down into the depression where the magma had been.

The hot springs are still fed by Magma. The beginning of new activity was marked by earthquakes in 1980 and includes shifts in the position of hot springs and swarms of other small earthquakes. It's thought that it indicates that the area will erupt again.

The last known eruption was in 1786. It is thought to erupt every 600 to 800 years. The mountain is the most important visual element in the Northern California landscape.

The University of Hawaii and the U.S. Geological Survey say that the two volcanoes in Hawaii are among the most studied active volcanoes in the world.

Additional resources and reading

If you think the stories of volcanoes were impressive, then you should read about the 10 times volcanoes blew our minds.

Did you know that Mount Vesuvius did not kill everyone in Pompeii? What happened to the survivors?

Bibliography