Volcanoes

Question 1

What is a volcano?

Answer 1

A volcano is an opening in the Earths surface. It is a tectonic land form created by tectonic plates. Many volcanoes occur at plate boundaries.

Question 2

What is a volcanic eruption?

Answer 2

A volcanic eruption is the release of heat, lava, ash and gas through the earths crust. These are different types of eruptions not all with lots of lava.

Question 3

What happens when magma reaches the surface?

Answer 3

When magma reaches the surface it is called lava and when it cools it forms rock

Question 4

What boundaries can volcanic eruptions happen at?

Answer 4

Volcanic eruptions can happen at destructive and constructive boundaries but not at conservative boundaries.

Question 5

Where can some volcanoes be found?

Answer 5

Some volcanoes are underwater on the sea bed or ocean floor

Question 6

Active

Answer 6

Erupted recently likely to erupt again

Question 7

Dormant

Answer 7

Hasn’t erupted for 2000 years could erupt again

Question 8

Extinct

Answer 8

Highly unlikely to ever erupt again

Question 9

What happens when lava cools?

Answer 9

Lava cools and gardens to form an igneous rock. The most common one is basalt. Glassy lava that explodes out forms pumice.

Question 10

What consistency is magma?

Answer 10

Magma can be viscous (thick like tar) or as runny as thin custard. It depends on the rock that melted.

Question 11

What is volcanic gas made up of?

Answer 11

Volcanic gas is mainly steam and carbon dioxide, plus some sulphur dioxide and other gases. It smells of rotten eggs and it can suffocate you.

Question 12

Volcanic eruption:

Answer 12

1. Red hot lava may flow down the side of the volcanoes through the secondary vent.
2. If the lava is thick and gassy it can’t run out of the volcano easily the pressure builds up until it explodes.
3. As it explodes it cools and hardens giving a cloud of particles of all sizes from dust and ash to big lumps mixed with scorching gas.
4. The heavy cloud will collapse and rush down as a deadly pyroclastic flow.
5. If this gets mixed with water (e.g. a river or melting snow) you get a river of mud called a mudflow.

Question 13

Shield volcanoes

Answer 13

• Often at constructive plate margins
• Wide base
• Gently sloping sides
• Eruptions can be violent
• Lava is runny so can flow a long way
• Basic lava (opposite of acidic)

Question 14

Composite Volcano

Answer 14

• Often at destructive plate margins
• Steep sided
• Steam, ash, lava and rock also ejected
• Made up of alternate layers of ash and lava
• Can be violent
• Sticky (viscous), ‘acidic’ lava which.can’t flow far

Question 15

Give two volcanoes in Europe?

Answer 15

Mount Vesuvius and Mount Etna

Question 16

Give a volcanoes from outside of Europe?

Answer 16

Yellowstone

Question 17

Where is Eyjafjallajokull located?

Answer 17

The South West of Iceland

The North Atlantic Ridge

Question 18

Why does Iceland experience volcanic eruptions.

Answer 18

The North American and Eurasian plate are pulling apart to magma wells up from underwater volcanoes. Over 70 million years the volcanoes have grown into a mountain ridge it’s called the mid Atlantic ridge. Most of the ridge is underwater but it sticks up into a few places forming Iceland. This is where it sticks out and forms Iceland. Iceland grew taller than the other parts of the ridge because extra magma spurts out fed by a current of magma called a plume. The plume is still there and the plates are still moving apart.

Question 19

Facts about Eyjafjallajokull

Answer 19

It is one of the least active volcanoes in Europe
In April 2010 the volcano became headline news as it erupted and had impacts that were felt across Europe
The eruption happened underneath an ice sheet
Dissolved gases in the molten rock along with the steam generated from the melting ice caused a large column of volcanic ash.

Question 20

What were the effects of the eruption in Iceland?

Answer 20

A 500m fissure opened up
Areas were flooded because of the glacier melt which lay above the volcano
Agriculture land was damaged and farms were damaged and farms were hit by heavy ash fall
The ash fall poisoned animals in nearby farms
Some roads were destroyed
People were asked to stay indoors because of the ash in the air
20 farming families were evacuated

Question 21

The effects of the Eyjafjallajokull eruption in Europe

Answer 21

Flights had to be cancelled because of the ash cloud. It caused turmoil in the air for almost a month.

Question 22

What is the main volcano in North America

Answer 22

Yellowstone

Question 23

The social impacts of a Yellowstone eruption

Answer 23

SOCIAL IMPACTS
1 in 3 people affected will die
All life up to 1000 km will die
Peoples housing will be destroyed
Due to crops getting destroyed people will starve
Up to 5 billion people will be killed

Question 24

The economical impacts of a Yellowstone eruption

Answer 24

ECONOMICAL ERUPTION
The ash would affect transport, electricity, businesses, water will be polluted, crops will fail
The economy will collapse
It would effect key transport
Businesses because of low customers and damage
Decrease in tourism

Question 25

The environmental impacts of a Yellowstone eruption

Answer 25

ENVIROMENTAL IMPACTS
Likely to destroy 10,000km squared of land
The ash thrown up in the air would reduce the level of radiation from the sun causing freezing cold volcanic winters across the planet
Earth quakes
Ash cloud would cause climate change