Chapter 12 Vocabulary and Study Guide

Volcanoes

1) acid rain Moisture with a PH below 5.6 that falls to Earth as rain or snow
and can damage forests, harm organisms, and corrode structures.
Sulfurous gases emitted by volcanoes can mix with water vapor
and form acid rain

2) tephra Bits of rock or solidified lava dropped from the air during an
explosive volcanic eruption. These range in size from volcanic
ash to volcanic bombs and blocks.

3) pyroclastic flow A ground-hugging avalanche of hot ash, pumice, and rock

fragments that rushes down the side of a volcano during an
eruption. The flow travels down the slope of the volcano at speeds up to 150 miles per
hour. The temperature inside the flow of hot gases and rock can reach 1500 degrees
Fahrenheit. These "stone winds" traveling at hurricane speeds kill or destroy everything
in their path. The flows usually follow the curvature of the land to the valleys below the
mountain. Sometimes a pyroclastic surge will jump ridges and flow down nearby valleys
spreading the destruction into new areas.

4) intrusive A type of igneous rock feature that generally contains large crystals and forms when
magma ( not lava!) cools slowly beneath Earth’s surface. Magma underground cools
very slowly, over thousands to millions of years. As it cools, elements combine to form common silicate
minerals, the building blocks of igneous rocks. These mineral crystals can grow quite large if space allows. The
mineral crystals within this type of rock are large enough to see without a microscope. There are many different
types of intrusive igneous rocks but granite is the most common type. Intrusive igneous rock bodies such as
batholiths, dikes, and sills form when magma solidifies underground.

5) extrusive This describes fine-grained igneous rock that forms when magma cools quickly at
or near the Earth’s surface. When lava erupts onto the Earth's surface, it cools quickly. If
the lava cools in less than a day or two, there is no time for elements to form minerals. Instead, elements are
frozen in place within volcanic glass. Often, lava cools over a few days to weeks and minerals have enough
time to form but not time to grow into large crystals. Basalt is the most common type of extrusive igneous rock
and the most common rock type at the Earth's surface.

6) lava Molten rock that flows from volcanoes onto Earth’s surface. After magma
reaches the surface it's called lava.

7) magma Hot, melted rock material beneath Earth’s surface. Magma originates in the mantle.
There, high temperatures and pressure cause some rocks to melt and form magma. After
magma reaches the surface it's called lava. Magma rises to the surface because magma is less dense than rock.
The types of magma are determined by the chemical composition and the physical properties of the magma.
Three general types are recognized: basaltic magma, andesitic magma, and granitic magma. Basaltic magma
has a high temperature and due to its flowing nature is the type of magma most commonly thought of when
talking about volcanoes. Andesite magma has a moderate temperature and is moderately explosive. Granitic
magma has a low temperature and is highly explosive. The way a volcano erupts is largely determined by the
viscosity, or ‘gooeyness’ of the magma. Viscosity is the resistance to flow (opposite of fluidity) and depends
primarily on the composition of the magma, and its temperature. Water has low viscosity (flows easily) while
syrup and honey have greater viscosity. High viscosity lavas flow slowly and typically cover small areas. Low
viscosity magmas flow more rapidly and form lava flows that cover thousands of square kilometers.
Low viscosity magmas allow gases to escape easily whereas gas pressures
can build up in high viscosity magmas resulting in violent eruptions. Granitic

Lower temperature magmas have higher viscosity than higher temperature

magmas (viscosity decreases with increasing temperature of the magma).
The silica content is another factor in determining how viscous magma is.
Higher SiO2 (silica) content magmas have higher viscosity than lower SiO2
content magmas (viscosity increases with increasing SiO2 concentration in
the magma).

8) caldera A large, circular shaped opening formed after an eruption of a volcano when the top of
the volcano collapses. A collapse is triggered by the emptying of the magma chamber
beneath the volcano, usually as the result of a very large volcanic eruption. If enough
magma is ejected, the emptied chamber is unable to support the weight of the rock above
it and it collapses. Many times, caldera will fill with water and become mountaintop
lakes. Most calderas are massive, crater-like depressions that can cover many tens of
square miles.

9) cinder cone volcano A steep-sided, loosely packed volcano formed when

tephra falls to the ground. These generally do not have
a lava flow, but when they erupt they are explosive and throw lava high into the air.
Paricutin, in Mexico, is a cinder cone volcano. Cinder cones are made up of small
fragments of lava from a single vent that have been blown into the air, cooled and
fallen around the vent. Cinder cone volcanoes are the simplest and the most common
type of volcano. They are steep sided circular or oval cone shapes of basaltic fragments
and are much smaller and much simpler than composite volcanoes.

10) composite volcano
Composite volcanoes, also known as a stratovolcanos, are found mostly where
Earth's plates come together and one plate sinks beneath the other. Composite
volcanoes are steep-sided volcanoes composed of many alternating layers of
volcanic rocks, lava, volcanic ash, tephra, and pumice. Mt. Rainier and Mount
St. Helens are examples of this type of volcano. The eruptions of Krakatoa in
1883, Mount Saint Helens in 1980 and Mount Pinatubo in 1992 were examples of
large volcanic eruptions by composite volcanoes. Often, the large-volume
explosions rapidly drain the lava beneath these mountains and cause the top to
collapse to form large depressions called calderas. Later, these depressions fill
with water and form beautiful lakes, like Crater Lake in Oregon.

11) shield volcano Broad, gently sloping volcano formed by quiet eruptions of basaltic lava flows.
Flow after flow pours out in all directions from a central summit vent, or group of
vents, building a broad, gently sloping cone of a flat, rounded shape, with a profile
much like that of a warrior's shield. Shield volcanoes are the least explosive. Some
of the largest volcanoes in the world are shield volcanoes. In northern California and
Oregon, many shield volcanoes have diameters of 3 or 4 miles and heights of 1,500 to
2,000 feet. The Hawaiian Islands are composed of linear chains of shield volcanoes
including Kilauea and Mauna Loa on the island of Hawaii, two of the world's most
active volcanoes.

12) volcanic mountain A volcanic mountain is formed when molten material and ash reaches Earth’s
surface through a weak crustal area and piles up into a cone-shaped structure. The term ‘volcano’ is only the
rupture on the crust of Earth which allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber
below the surface. It is not a volcanic mountain until enough material has piled up to make it a mountain.
13) volcano Opening in Earth’s surface that erupts allowing sulfurous gases, ash, and lava to escape
from a magma chamber below the surface. They can form at Earth’s plate boundaries,
where plates move apart or together, and at hot spots. Volcanoes often are found in areas
on Earth where plates collide and at these convergent plate boundaries, volcanoes tend to
erupt more violently than they do in other areas. A volcano often forms a mountain when
layers of lava and volcanic ash erupt and build up. Sulfurous gases emitted by volcanoes
can mix with water vapor and form acid rain. More than 600 of Earth’s volcanoes are
currently active but Kilauea in Hawaii is the world’s most active volcano. The Pacific
Ring of Fire is an area around the Pacific Ocean where over 75% of the volcanoes on
Earth are found. The Ring of Fire outlines the borders of the Pacific Plate and other
major tectonic plates and includes the western coast of the United States.

14) hot spot The result of an unusually hot area at the boundary between Earth’s mantle
and core that forms volcanoes when melted rock is forced upwards and breaks through the crust.
Mantle plumes are these areas of hot, upwelling mantle. A hot spot develops above the mantle plume.
Hotspots may be far from tectonic plate boundaries. A volcanic hotspot is where lava pushes up
from under the mantle and creates a volcano. The earth's plates move along and another volcano
is created later. This creates a chain of volcanoes, such as in Hawaii. The Hawaiian Islands are
formed because of hot spots. The Hawaiian hot spot has been active at least 70 million years,
producing a volcanic chain that extends 3,750 miles (6,000 km) across the northwest Pacific Ocean.

15) volcanic neck The solid igneous core of a volcano left behind after the softer portions
of the cone have been eroded. A volcanic neck is the remnant of an old eroded volcano.
Differences in resistance to erosion cause a volcanic neck to form. As the volcano died, the
last bit of lava inside of the volcanoes opening, or neck, cooled and hardened. Over many
hundreds of thousands of years the material around the neck is removed by erosion, leaving
only the harder neck behind. Volcanic necks are sometimes called volcanic plugs. When
present, a plug can cause an extreme build-up of pressure if the volcano becomes active again
and magma is trapped beneath the plug. This can lead to a very explosive eruption.

16) Devil's Tower in Wyoming is an example of a volcanic neck and is seen in the picture above. Devils
Tower was the first declared United States National Monument, established on
September 24, 1906, by President Theodore Roosevelt. According to Native American
legend, two girls went out to play and were spotted by several giant bears who began to
chase them. In an effort to escape the bears, the girls climbed atop a rock, fell to their
knees, and prayed to the Great Spirit to save them. Hearing their prayers, the Great Spirit
made the rock rise from the ground towards the heavens so that the bears could not reach the girls. The bears, in
an effort to climb the rock, left deep claw marks in the sides, which had become too steep to climb.

17) crater A steep-walled, usually circular, depression around a volcano’s vent. This is where the
lava, ash and rock erupt out of a volcano. In most situations, the volcano crater is located
at the top of the volcano. Think of a classic cone-shaped volcano, with steep sides and a
slightly flattened top. If you could climb up to the top of the volcano and peer over the
edge, you would look down into the volcano crater. And when the volcano does erupt, the
material comes out of this volcano crater.

18) vent An opening in Earth’s crust where magma is force up and

flows out on to Earth’s surface as lava, forming a volcano. The opening in a
volcano, even if it not at the peak of the volcanic mountain is a vent if that is
where the pyroclastic material is coming from. There is usually a central vent
but there may also be secondary vents that also allow material to be released from
inside the Earth.
19) batholith The largest intrusive igneous rock body that forms
when magma being forced upward toward Earth’s crust cools slowly and
solidifies underground. These magma bodies cool very slowly before
they reach Earth's surface. Batholiths are usually composed of coarse-grained
rocks like granite or quartz, have an irregular shape, with side walls that incline
steeply, and may be 40 sq mi or more wide and 6–9 mi deep.

20) dike An intrusive igneous rock feature formed when magma is squeezed through a
vertical crack that cuts across rock layers and hardens underground. Dikes are
formed across vertical cracks, and sills are formed across horizontal ones. Dikes
are usually visible because they are at a different angle, and usually have different
color and texture than the rock surrounding them. Dikes are up and down.

21) sill An intrusive igneous rock feature formed when magma is

squeezed into a horizontal crack between layers of rock and hardens underground.
Dikes are formed across vertical cracks, and sills are formed across horizontal ones.
Sills parallel beds (layers) and foliations in the surrounding rock. Sills are back
and forth.

22) divergent boundary when two tectonic plates are moving away from each other.
Divergent boundaries within continents initially produce rifts which eventually become
rift valleys. Most active divergent plate boundaries occur between oceanic plates and
form mid-ocean ridges. Divergent boundaries also form volcanic islands which occur
when the plates move apart to produce gaps which molten lava rises to fill. Earthquakes
occur along the faults, and volcanoes form where the magma reaches the surface.

23) convergent boundary when two tectonic plates are moving towards each other . Active volcanoes are
most likely to form at convergent oceanic–continental boundaries. When two oceanic plates converge, the
denser one subducts, or sinks, beneath the other, causing volcanic islands and trenches to form. When two
continental plates collide there is usually little or no subduction, so there is rarely volcanic activity but rather a
lot of mountain building.

oceanic-continental continental-continental oceanic-oceanic

24) Paricutin a large cinder cone volcano that grew in a corn field in
Mexico in 1943. Parícutin is a cinder cone volcano in the Mexican State of Michoacán,
close to a lava-covered village of the same name. The volcano is unique in the fact that
its evolution from creation to extinction was witnessed, observed and studied. It appears
on many versions of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. The volcano grew quickly,
reaching five stories tall in just a week. Paricutin was active for nine years, during which
time it destroyed the nearby town San Juan and covered a large area of around a hundred square miles with ash.

25) Kilauea in Hawaii is the world’s most active volcano. Kilauea is a shield volcano in the
Hawaiian Islands, the most active of the five volcanoes that together form the island of Hawaii. Located along
the southern shore of the island, the volcano, at 300,000 to 600,000 years old, is the second youngest product of
the Hawaiian hotspot. Kilauea's current eruption dates back to January 3, 1983, and is by far its longest-lived
historical period of activity, as well as one of the longest-lived eruptions in the world; as of January 2011, the
eruption has produced 3.5 cubic km of lava and resurfaced 123.2 km2 (48 sq mi) of land.
26) Krakatau A very violent eruption in 1883 that collapsed an entire island into a
magma chamber. It was one of the biggest, and loudest, eruptions in
recorded history and was primarily andesitic in composition. The
eruption also unleashed huge tsunamis (killing more than 36,000 people)
and destroying over two-thirds of the island. The explosion is considered
to be the loudest sound ever heard in modern history, with reports of it
being heard up to 3,000 miles (4,800 km) from its point of origin. The
shock waves from the explosion were recorded around the globe.

27) aa lava flow one of the two distinct types of hardened lava you’ll likely see in Hawaii. It is
believed that the name a’a came from the noises someone might make while
walking over it in bare feet. Maybe an alternative name should be ouch’ouch or
ow’ow. A'a lava looks completely different than pahoehoe lava as it is formed.
Whereas pahoehoe lava flows smoothly like water or molasses, a'a lava tumbles
in the form of small rocks with very jagged sharp edges. The rocks are porous and
very jagged. The rocks are very lightweight, as opposed to pahoehoe that is
extremely dense, and a'a rocks tend to pile up on each other with a lava front that might be a few feet to 40 or 50
feet high of tumbling red hot sharp rocks. It flows slowly and is intensely hot. Below the surface a'a is
extremely dense. A'a is very difficult, if not nearly impossible, to walk on (at least without getting hurt).

28) pahoehoe lava flow one of the two distinct types of hardened lava you’ll see
in Hawaii. Pahoehoe lava comes out smooth and dense and can form large areas that
resemble flat parking lots or smooth bumps. In general, pahoehoe is very easy to walk
on. Pahoehoe lava is one of the most interesting forms of lava. Since it tends to flow
more as a thick liquid it can pour uphill as well as downhill and can create a huge
variety of interesting shapes. This type of lava flow is more fluid, develops a smooth
skin, and forms ropelike patterns when it cools. Basaltic lava flows with low viscosity
start to cool when exposed to the low temperature of the atmosphere. This causes a
surface skin to form, although it is still very hot and behaves in a plastic fashion, capable of deformation.
Initially the surface skin is smooth, but often inflates with molten lava and expands to form pahoehoe toes or
rolls to form ropey pahoehoe. Pahoehoe flows tend to be thin and, because of their low viscosity travel long
distances from the vent.

29) Iceland Islands like Iceland are often formed due to rifts in the Earth's
surface, plate movement, and cooling lava flows. Active volcanism is currently taking
place along all oceanic ridges on Earth, but most of this volcanism is submarine,
underwater, volcanism. One place where an oceanic ridge reaches above sea level is
at Iceland, along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Here, most eruptions are basaltic in nature,
but, many are very explosive. As seen in the map, the Mid-Atlantic ridge runs directly
through Iceland.

30) silica SiO2 A compound composed of silicone and oxygen. Silica is most commonly found
in nature as quartz as well as in various living organisms. A major portion of all
magma is silica. The amount of silica, along with water vapor, that is trapped in magma determines the
explosiveness of a volcanic eruption. The more silica there is in magma, the stiffer it is and the more it resists
flow.

31) Soufriére Hills Volcano an example of a composite volcano formed at a subduction zone in
Montserrat. Its existence is due to the subduction of the Atlantic under the Caribbean plate. Its first eruption
started in 1995 and is still ongoing. Much of the area is now buried beneath a thick layer of ash and mud. It is
one of the most studied volcanoes in the world today.
32) basaltic magma This type of magma is low silica, fluid,
and produces a quiet, non-explosive eruption. High levels of silica
cause magma to become more viscous. When rock in the upper
mantle melts, basaltic magma usually forms. The low silica content
of basaltic magma makes it low viscosity so that dissolved gasses
can escape. The resulting volcanoes have quiet eruptions such as
Kilauea.

33) granitic magma Granitic magma eruptions are the most

explosive. High levels of silica cause magma to become thicker.
Granitic magma is thick and stiff and contains lots of silica and
dissolved gasses. Granitic magma has the most silica and has the
highest viscosity.

34) andesitic magma Andesetic magma has an intermediate

amount of silica which gives it an intermediate viscosity, in between
basaltic and granitic magmas.