Volcanoes 1. A volcano is a mountain that opens downward to a pool of molten rock below the surface of the earth.

When pressure builds up, eruptions occur. 2. In an eruption, gases and rock shoot up through the opening and spill over or fill the air with lava fragments. Eruptions can cause lava flows, hot ash flows, mudslides, avalanches, falling ash and floods. 3. The danger area around a volcano covers about a 20-mile radius. 4. Fresh volcanic ash, made of pulverized rock, can be harsh, acidic, gritty, glassy and smelly. The ash can cause damage to the lungs of older people, babies and people with respiratory problems 5. Volcanic lightning occurs mostly within the cloud of ash during an eruption, and is created by the friction of the ash rushing to the surface. Roughly 200 accounts of this lightning have been witnessed live. 6. An erupting volcano can trigger tsunamis, flash floods, earthquakes, mudflows and rockfalls. 7. More than 80% of the earth's surface is volcanic in origin. The sea floor and some mountains were formed by countless volcanic eruptions. Gaseous emissions from volcano formed the earth's atmosphere. 8. There are more than 500 active volcanoes in the world. More than half of these volcanoes are part of the "Ring of Fire," a region that encircles the Pacific Ocean. 9. Active volcanoes in the U.S. are found mainly in Hawaii, Alaska, California, Oregon and Washington, but the greatest chance of eruptions near areas where many people live is in Hawaii and Alaska. 10. The sound of an erupting volcano can be quiet and hissing or explosive and booming. The loud cracks travel hundreds of miles and do the most damage, including hearing loss and broken glass. 11. The most deadly eruptions have occurred in Indonesia, with tens of thousands of lives lost to starvation, tsunami (as a result of the eruption), ash flows, and mudflow. 12. Volcanoes are places where magma (red hot liquid rock from the earths interior) emerges through the crust and onto the surface. 13. The word volcano comes from Vulcano Island in the Mediterranean; here Vulcan, the ancient roman god of fire and blacksmith to the gods, was supposed to have forged his weapons in the fire beneath the mountain. 14. There are many types of volcano; the most distinctive are the cone-shaped composite volcanoes, which build up from alternating layers of ash and lava in successive eruptions. 15. Beneath a composite volcano there is typically a large reservoir of magma called a magma chamber; magma collects in the chamber before the eruption.

16. From the magma chamber a narrow chimney, or vent, leads up to the surface; it passes through the cone of debris from previous eruptions. 17. When a volcano erupts, the magma is driven forcefully up the vent by the gases within it, as the magma nears the surface, the pressure drops, allowing the gases dissolved in the magma to boil out; the expanding gases mostly carbon dioxide and steam push the molten rock upwards and out of the vent. 18. If the level of magma in the magma chamber drops, the top of the volcanos cone may collapse into it, forming a giant crater called a caldera; caldera is Spanish for boiling spot, the worlds largest caldera is Toba on Sumatra, Indonesia, which is 1,775 square kilometers. 19. At Urgup, Turkey volcanic ash has been blown into tall cones by gas fumes bubbling up, the cones have hardened like huge salt cellars; people have dug them out to make homes. 20. When a volcano with a caldera subsides, the whole cone may collapse into the old magma chamber; the caldera may fill with water to form a crater lake, such as Crater Lake in Oregon, USA. 21. All the magma does not gush up the central vent; some exits through branching side vents, often forming their own small parasitic cones on the side of the main one. 22. Some volcanoes produce no liquid lava at all. Instead they shoot out solid pieces of rock. 23. Volcanoes are either live or dead. A live volcano is one that may erupt in the future. A dead volcano is one which erupted in the past but will not again. When a live volcano is erupting, it is said to be active. When it is not erupting it is said to be dormant.