Volcanoes

Question 1

What can volcanoes produce?

Answer 1

Lava, gases, ash, pyroclastic flows

Question 2

What is a volcanic winter?

Answer 2

Reduction in temperature and sunlight caused by a large volcanic eruption

Question 3

What is a shield volcano?

Answer 3

Found at divergent tectonic plate margins or hotspots (like in the Pacific).
Not particularly explosive.
They release ‘basaltic lava’ when the volcano erupts. Basaltic lava is like a liquid that flows gradually, creating a volcano with a gentle gradient (rather than a steep slope).
Shield volcanoes do not produce any ash.

Question 4

What is a composite volcano?

Answer 4

Found at convergent tectonic plate boundaries.
Erupt explosively.
Instead of basaltic lava, composite volcanoes erupt andesitic lava.
Andesitic lava is thicker than basaltic lava because it has more silica in it.
Because andesitic lava is thicker, it travels less far and composite volcanoes have steeper sides, forming a cone shape.
Mount Pinatubo, Mount Vesuvius in Italy and Mount Fuji in Japan are examples.

Question 5

What is a hotspot?

Answer 5

Hotspots do not happen at plate boundaries. But they still count as volcanic activity.
Hotspots happen on parts of the Earth’s crust over hotter parts of the Earth’s mantle.
The rising hot air weakens the Earth’s crust and magma can reach the surface, bubbling up through the weakness in the crust.
The Hawaiian islands all formed as a result of a mid-Pacific hotspot.

Question 6

What is an active volcano?

Answer 6

Likely to erupt

Question 7

What is an dormant volcano?

Answer 7

Dormant volcanoes are volcanoes that have the potential to become active but have not actually erupted for at least 10,000 years.

Question 8

What is an extinct volcano?

Answer 8

Extinct volcanoes are volcanoes that are unlikely to ever erupt again and have not erupted for at least 1,000,000 years.

Question 9

Good reasons to live near volcanoss:

Answer 9

Abundance of minerals, fertile soil, tourism, geothermal energy