Quarter 2 Quiz 2 Flashcards
Volcano extinction
Volcanoes can be grouped into major categories based on their status
Active: currently erupting
Dormant: not currently erupting, but believed to be potentially active
Extinct: future eruptions not possible (no source of magma underground)
What is a volcano
Volcanoes are features in which magma is transported to the surface via a plumbing system that feeds one or more vent (where volcano erupts from)
Parts of a volcano
LOOK UP PICTURE OF VOLCANO
Conduit will transport magma from the magma chamber to the central vent, where it leaves the volcano, although some magma may end up leaving through one or more side vents
Some magma is stored underground above the magma chamber in horizontal pools known as sills, or vertical ones (usually along rock fractures) called dikes
LOOK AT VOLCANO PIC ON DOC
Magmatic Differentiation
Rocks of varying composition can arise from a uniform parent magma and ice versa
Process is a result of the fact that minerals have different crystallization (melting) temperatures
Once partial melt forms, it can migrate upwards, leaving the solidified minerals behind (precipitate)
Migrating partial melt can pool in magma chamber, and then eventually erupt
As the temperature of the magma changes, it can form different rocks’
Various minerals in the rock have various melting points…….
Thus, from the same igneous rock formations, magma can have very different compositions. Bowen’s Reaction Series:
Magma becomes more felsic as temperatures decrease because silicate minerals are the last to crystalize (they have the lowest melting points).
Bowen’s Reaction Series
Various minerals in the rock have various melting points
From the same igneous rock formations, magma can have very different compositions. Bowen’s Reaction Series
LOOK AT PIC ON DOC
Rock thats melting into magma, magma that’s cooling into a rock
As puddle cools down, some minerals become solid while others stay liquid
Hotter magma forms more mafic rock, low silica minerals crystallize faster and crystallize at a higher temperature
In order to melt mafic stuff into a rock, magma has to be hot
How to melt rock
Increase temp
Decrease pressure (reduces melting point)
Add water (which reduces melting point because it acts similarly to how salts do to ice; interferes in bonds, acts as ‘network modifier’)
Do any or all and you can melt rock into magma
How magma generation happens in nature
Mid-Ocean Ridges
Subduction Zones
Mantle Plumes
Mid-ocean ridges (seafloor spreading)
Decompression melting: hot solid (or mostly solid) rock is pushed up from the mantle
A reduction in pressure decreases the melting point, liquifying hte rock
Mantle upwelling ( as mantle comes up to fill in gap) occurs as a response to tectonic plate divergence; plates pull apart, and the mantle pushes up to fill the gap
Mantle plumes
Not fully understood
May explain volcanoes that form outside of the boundaries of tectonic plates
Molten rock rises to the surface in a specific area, melting by decompression, this area is hotter than its surroundings, likely due to uneven heat distribution inside the Earth
Random pocket of hot in the Earth, as hot rock rises, melts due to decompression (already hot enough to melt, crushing pressure is keeping it solid, when pressure eases, it melts)
Subduction zones
Convergent plate boundaries
Ocean-Ocean or Ocean-Continental
Denser Plate Subducts (usually oceanic or older plate)
One plate subducts under another, water helps melt the rock
Eruptions and magma composition (viscosity)
Eruptions vary depending on the composition of magma
One of the main reasons why is the viscosity, or ‘stickiness’ of magma
Felsic magma is more viscous
Mafic magma is less viscous
Honey is more viscous, water is less viscous
More silica you have, the more viscous, the more ‘sticky’ it will be (more silica in felsic material, less silica in mafic material)
MORE VISCOUS MEANS MORE EXPLOSIVE ERUPTION
types of eruptions general info
Generally volcanic eruptions can be EXPLOSIVE or EFFUSIVE based on the COMPOSITION OF MAGMA
Felsive is most viscous, mafic magma is less viscous
More
Basaltic eruptions
Low silica basaltic magma has low viscosity and can therefore flow relatively easily
Rarely explosive
Lava flows are common
Andesitic eruptions
intermediate -silica andesitic magma has higher viscosity and therefore flow with more difficulty
Often but not always explosive (sometimes effusive)
Pyroclastic material is common
Most fo the plate tectonic boundary volcanoes are andesitic
Rhyolitic eruptions
High-silica rhyolitic magma has very high viscosity and flows with great difficulty
Very explosive
Pyroclastic material
Major volcano types general
Explosion type dictates volcano form
shield volcano, strato volcano, cinder cone
Shield volcano
Shield volcano - very large, Basaltic Magma/Mafic (not explosive)
strato volcano
Stratovolcano - large, Andesitic and Rhyolitic eruptions, Felsic (extremely explosive)
most pyroclastic material and lava is ejected with great force; some shoots up, falls down, and builds the volcano up into steep shape
Violent explosions can blow off a piece of the volcano, such as Mt. Saint Helens (Washington State)
cinder cone
Cinder Cones - small (usually less than 300 meters tall), usually occur in areas with other volcanic activity, Basaltic to andesitic eruptions (mildly explosive eruptions)
Result of scoria piling up around a single vent
Most common type of volcano
Usually only erupt once
What is a sedimentary rock?
A rock made of sediments
Formed from pieces of pre existing rocks or once living organisms
How sedimentary rocks fit into the rock cycle
A rock made of sediments
Formed from pieces of pre existing rocks or once living organisms
Weathering of other rocks, can be made from either igneous or metamorphic rocks being weathered into sediments
What is sediment
Sediment - pieces of stuff (anything that’s naturally occurring
Mechanical and chemical weathering produces the raw materials for soil and sedimentary rock