Volcanism

Volcanism is part of the process of bringing material from the deep interior of a planet and
spilling it forth on the surface. Eruptions also eject new molecules into the atmosphere.
Volcanism is part of the process by which a planet cools off. Even though they are not
volcanoes, geysers and hot springs are also part of the volcanic process, involving water and
hydrothermal activity. Some planetary bodies, like Jupiter's moon Europa, exhibit icy volcanism,
which is another form of volcanism involving water.
There are several ways in which a volcano forms, just as there are several different kinds of
volcanoes. On Earth, the most general cause of volcanism is caused by subduction of the Earth's
crust.
There are quite a few other planets which have volcanoes on the surface, including Venus, Mars,
and Jupiter's moon Io. Other planets exhibit the results of volcanic activity. These include
Mercury, the Earth's Moon, Jupiter's moon Europa, and perhaps Neptune's moon Triton.
On Earth, volcanism occurs in several distinct geologic settings. Most of these are associated
with the boundaries of the enormous, rigid plates that make up the lithosphere—the crust and
upper mantle. The majority of active terrestrial volcanoes (roughly 80 percent) and related
phenomena occur where two lithospheric plates converge and one overrides the other, forcing it
down into the mantle to be reabsorbed. Long curved chains of islands known as island arcs form
at such subduction zones. Volcanoes of the explosive type make up many of the islands of a
single arc or the inner row of islands of a double arc. All such islands that border the Pacific
basin are built up from the seafloor, usually by the extrusion of basaltic and andesitic magmas.
A relatively small number of volcanoes occur within plates far from their margins. Some, as
exemplified by the volcanic islands of Hawaii that lie in the interior of the Pacific Plate, are
thought to occur because of plate movement over a “hot spot” from which magmas can penetrate
to the surface. These magmas characteristically generate a chain of progressively older volcanoes
that mark the direction of past motion of the plate over a particular hot spot. The active volcanoes of
the East African Rift Valley also occur within a plate (the African Plate), but they appear to
result from a different mechanism—possibly the beginning of a new region of plates moving
apart.

REACTION
The Eruption of Mt. Vesivius
The eruption of the Mt. Vesuvius is very dangerous. It led to the destruction of many
cities in Italy and the death of a thousand people. It has erupted many times since and is today
regarded as one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world because of the population of
3,000,000 people living nearby and its tendency towards explosive eruptions. It is the most
densely populated volcanic region in the world. Many of Pompeii's neighboring communities,
most famously Herculaneum, also suffered damage or destruction during the eruption.
 Because the volcano erupted many times, some of the damage had still not been repaired.
The volcanic eruption also caused widespread destruction around the Bay of Naples, and
particularly to Pompeii.