Honors Physical Science: Volcanoes

Words: 1137
Pages: 5
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Kyla Short
Benenson
Honors Physical Science 5
15 May 2017
Volcanoes
I chose to do this semester project on volcanoes because i’ve never known much about them yet i’ve always been interested in them. I have always asked the questions of, what are volcanoes and how do they work so for my essential question i decided to ask exactly that. Through this report i will answer the essential question, ‘what is a volcano and how does it work?’.
Volcanoes have an extremely simple structure and a fairly basic eruption process. The entire structure can be simplified into a few main points. As you can see in figure 1 to the right volcanoes only a couple main points. Volcanoes consist of the mamaga chamber which is formed underneath the Earth's surface …show more content…
How is it formed? Have you ever asked yourself these questions, because I know I have. A volcano is an opening in the Earth's crust which magma escapes. Volcanoes are also referred to as mountains produced by volcanic activity. Volcanoes sometimes are simplified down to being explained as a mountain which explodes lava or gas. Volcanoes are practically mountains with a vent or chimney which transfers magma from deep down in the Earth's core. Volcanoes are formed by a crack or space in the tectonic plates in the lithosphere. Through these cracks magma gets pushed through the layers and pushed all the way up through the crust forming an eruption. There are three different phases of activity a volcano can be in. A volcano can be considered active, which is where it is currently or recently has erupted lava, released gas, or had seismic activity. Another phase is dormant where a volcano has not erupted or had any activity in a long time but still may erupt. Extinct is when a volcano has not and will not erupt ever again, a volcano that has been dormant for over 10,000 years is considered extinct. As shown in figure 2 above we can clearly distinguish the difference between the three phases and we are also shown the differences in the magma chambers below each of the different phased volcanoes. The study of volcanoes is called the study of volcanoes or volcanology. Now i will never need to ask those questions …show more content…
The three main categories are explosive, non-explosive, and no explosion all seem fairly self explanatory. Explosive eruptions have high pressure and send steam, magma, and ash high in the atmosphere. Non-explosive eruptions have low pressure and extremely slow moving lava. No explosive eruptions have very low pressure and magma moves so slowly up that it cools and hardens on its way. In eruptions, magma is pushed through the opening with lots of pressure. There are special types of eruptions like plinian eruptions which are very powerful eruptions. Another specific type is the pyroclastic flow which is a liquid-like, very hot, mixture or material and gases that slide down the side of the volcano at a very fast speed. Volcanic eruptions are the most violent natural occurrence which occur mostly on the edge of the Earth’s tectonic plates, and a majority, 90%, of the world's volcanoes are in the ring of fire on the edge of the pacific ocean. The ring of fire can be seen in figure 3 to the left. As we see in figure 3 the ring up fire makes almost a complete ring on the edge of the pacific Ocean bordering North America, South America, Asia, and Australia. Eruptions have about a three step process. The first step is where the magma in the core is buoyant. The second step is magma flows while being helped by volatile substance, which starts bubbling as magma gets hotter and mushes the magma up making a violent eruption. Volatiles
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