Volcano

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the geological feature. For other uses, see Volcano
(disambiguation) and Volcanic (disambiguation).
For broader coverage of this topic, see Volcanism.

Sabancaya volcano erupting, Peru in

2017
A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth,
that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma
chamber below the surface.

On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic

plates are diverging or converging, and most are found underwater. For
example, a mid-ocean ridge, such as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, has volcanoes
caused by divergent tectonic plates whereas the Pacific Ring of Fire has
volcanoes caused by convergent tectonic plates. Volcanoes can also form
where there is stretching and thinning of the crust's plates, such as in
the East African Rift and the Wells Gray-Clearwater volcanic field and Rio
Grande rift in North America. Volcanism away from plate boundaries has
been postulated to arise from upwelling diapirs from the core–mantle
boundary, 3,000 kilometers (1,900 mi) deep witin Earth. This results
in hotspot volcanism, of which the Hawaiian hotspot is an example.
Volcanoes are usually not created where two tectonic plates slide past one
another.
Large eruptions can affect atmospheric temperature as ash and droplets
of sulfuric acid obscure the Sun and cool Earth's troposphere. Historically,
large volcanic eruptions have been followed by volcanic winters which have
caused catastrophic famines.[1]
Other planets besides Earth have volcanoes. For example, volcanoes are
very numerous on Venus.[2]

Etymology
The word volcano is derived from the name of Vulcano, a volcanic island in
the Aeolian Islands of Italy whose name in turn comes from Vulcan, the god
of fire in Roman mythology.[3] The study of volcanoes is called volcanology,
sometimes spelled vulcanology.[4]

Plate tectonics
Main article: Plate tectonics

Map showing the divergent

plate boundaries (oceanic spreading ridges) and recent sub-aerial volcanoes
(mostly at convergent boundaries)
According to the theory of plate tectonics, Earth's lithosphere, its rigid outer
shell, is broken into sixteen larger and several smaller plates. These are in
slow motion, due to convection in the underlying ductile mantle, and most
volcanic activity on Earth takes place along plate boundaries, where plates
are converging (and lithosphere is being destroyed) or are diverging (and new
lithosphere is being created).[5]
During the development of geological theory, certain concepts that allowed
the grouping of volcanoes in time, place, structure and composition have
developed that ultimately have had to be explained in the theory of plate
tectonics. For example, some volcanoes are polygenetic with more than one
period of activity during their history; other volcanoes that become extinct
after erupting exactly once are monogenetic (meaning "one life") and such
volcanoes are often grouped together in a geographical region.[6]
Divergent plate boundaries
Main article: Divergent boundary
At the mid-ocean ridges, two tectonic plates diverge from one another as hot
mantle rock creeps upwards beneath the thinned oceanic crust. The
decrease of pressure in the rising mantle rock leads to adiabatic expansion
and the partial melting of the rock, causing volcanism and creating new
oceanic crust. Most divergent plate boundaries are at the bottom of the
oceans, and so most volcanic activity on Earth is submarine, forming
new seafloor. Black smokers (also known as deep sea vents) are evidence of
this kind of volcanic activity. Where the mid-oceanic ridge is above sea level,
volcanic islands are formed, such as Iceland.[7]

Convergent plate boundaries

Main article: Convergent boundary
Subduction zones are places where two plates, usually an oceanic plate and
a continental plate, collide. The oceanic plate subducts (dives beneath the
continental plate), forming a deep ocean trench just offshore. In a process
called flux melting, water released from the subducting plate lowers the
melting temperature of the overlying mantle wedge, thus creating magma.
This magma tends to be extremely viscous because of its high silica content,
so it often does not reach the surface but cools and solidifies at depth. When
it does reach the surface, however, a volcano is formed. Thus subduction
zones are bordered by chains of volcanoes called volcanic arcs. Typical
examples are the volcanoes in the Pacific Ring of Fire, such as the Cascade
Volcanoes or the Japanese Archipelago, or the eastern islands of Indonesia.[8]

Hotspots
Main article: Hotspot (geology)
Hotspots are volcanic areas thought to be formed by mantle plumes, which
are hypothesized to be columns of hot material rising from the core-mantle
boundary. As with mid-ocean ridges, the rising mantle rock experiences
decompression melting which generates large volumes of magma. Because
tectonic plates move across mantle plumes, each volcano becomes inactive
as it drifts off the plume, and new volcanoes are created where the plate
advances over the plume. The Hawaiian Islands are thought to have been
formed in such a manner, as has the Snake River Plain, with the Yellowstone
Caldera being the part of the North American plate currently above
the Yellowstone hotspot.[9] However, the mantle plume hypothesis has been
questioned.[10]

Continental rifting
Main article: Rift
Sustained upwelling of hot mantle rock can develop under the interior of a
continent and lead to rifting. Early stages of rifting are characterized by flood
basalts and may progress to the point where a tectonic plate is completely
split.[11][12] A divergent plate boundary then develops between the two halves of
the split plate. However, rifting often fails to completely split the continental
lithosphere (such as in an aulacogen), and failed rifts are characterized by
volcanoes that erupt unusual alkali lava or carbonatites. Examples include the
volcanoes of the East African Rift.[13]

Volcanic features
Further information: Types of volcanoes

Lakagigar fissure vent in Iceland, the source of

the major world climate alteration of 1783–84, has a chain of volcanic cones
along its length. Skjaldbreiður, a shield volcano
whose name means "broad shield"
A volcano needs a reservoir of molten magma (e.g. a magma chamber), a
conduit to allow magma to rise through the crust, and a vent to allow the
magma to escape above the surface as lava.[14] The erupted volcanic material
(lava and tephra) that is deposited around the vent is known as a volcanic
edifice, typically a volcanic cone or mountain.[14] The most common
perception of a volcano is of a conical mountain, spewing lava and
poisonous gases from a crater at its summit; however, this describes just one
of the many types of volcano. The features of volcanoes are varied. The
structure and behavior of volcanoes depend on a number of factors. Some
volcanoes have rugged peaks formed by lava domes rather than a summit
crater while others have landscape features such as massive plateaus. Vents
that issue volcanic material (including lava and ash) and gases (mainly steam
and magmatic gases) can develop anywhere on the landform and may give
rise to smaller cones such as Puʻu ʻŌʻō on a flank of Kīlauea in
Hawaii. Volcanic craters are not always at the top of a mountain or hill and
may be filled with lakes such as with Lake Taupō in New Zealand. Some
volcanoes can be low relief landform features, with the potential to be hard to
recognise as such, and be obscured by geological processes. Other types of
volcano include cryovolcanoes (or ice volcanoes), particularly on some
moons of Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune; and mud volcanoes, which are
structures often not associated with known magmatic activity. Active mud
volcanoes tend to involve temperatures much lower than those
of igneous volcanoes except when the mud volcano is actually a vent of an
igneous volcano.

Fissure vents
Main article: Fissure vent
Volcanic fissure vents are flat, linear fractures through which lava emerges.