All about Volcanoes

Dr Tasha Black

Room 11
Waterloo School
What is a Volcano?

It is a hole in the Earth from which molten rock

(magma) and gas erupts.
Where does the name come from?

The name "volcano"

has its origin from the
name of Vulcan, the
god of fire in Roman
mythology.
What causes an eruption?
As pressure in the
molten rock builds up it
needs to escape
somewhere. So it forces
its way up “fissures”
which are narrow cracks
in the earths crust. Once
the magma erupts
through the earth’s
surface it’s called lava.
Where are the volcanoes in NZ?
Types of Volcano

Volcanic fields

Cone Volcanoes

Caldera volcanoes
Auckland volcanic field
Auckland volcanic field from Mt Eden
Rangitoto last erupted 600 years ago
Mt Taranaki
Mt Ruapehu erupted in 1995-1996
Caldera volcanoes
Caldera volcanoes in New Zealand
What comes out of volcanoes?
Ash
Pumice
Blocks
Bombs!
Lava
Lahars
Gases
Pyroclastic flows
Ground-hugging avalanches of hot ash, pumice, rock
fragments and volcanic gas travelling over 150 km/hr
Mt Vesuvius eruption 79 AD
Eyjafjallajökull Volcano, Iceland
Eyjafjallajökull Volcano, Iceland
Eyjafjallajökull Volcano, Iceland
Eyjafjallajökull Volcano, Iceland
Eyjafjallajökull Volcano, Iceland
Pretty cool huh?