Volcanoes

Taxonomy of volcanoes
The taxonomy of volcanoes is complicated and ad hoc, lacking clear, organizing
principles. One reason for this is the wide variety of morphologies at most volcanic
centers. Few volcanoes are simple, stand-alone forms; most are agglomerations of vents,
where each vent produced a spectrum of eruptions whose legacy is a complex overall
structure. The normal approach is to try to simplify volcano morphologies into a few
end member types, whose shape may be the result of a particular type of eruption. The
volcano types below try to follow that approach.

General terms

Magma a fluid mixture of minerals and molten rock, in contrast to a silicate melt,
that is all molten rock and no crystals. Most molten rocks are mostly SiO2, silicon
dioxide or silica.
basalt magma with ~ 50% SiO2, black lava flows, less explosive.
andesite magma with ~ 60% SiO2, gray lava and tephra, explosive.
rhyolite magma with ~ 75% SiO2, white tephra, very explosive.

Lava a flowing mass of magma or melt.

Tephra a deposit of cooled and solidified magma fragments, erupted explosively

Pyroclastic fall tephra (pumice and ash) raining out of an eruption cloud during a
large explosive eruption

Pyroclastic flow a flowing mass of tephra rushing down steep volcanic slopes
during large explosive eruptions, extremely powerful and fatally hot.

Lahar a flowing mass of tephra washed from steep volcanic slopes by rain, or by
floods from volcanic lakes or glaciers. A lahar is a debris flow with much higher density
and much more erosive power than a water flood.

Vent an opening of the earth where hot gas or molten rock comes out. This can
be as small as a cm in the case of a fumarole vent (place where volcanic gas escapes) or
as large as 40 km for a large caldera, a collapse feature formed by the eruption of huge
volumes of magma.

Volcano a vent from which magmas have erupted, either as lava or as tephra
 Most Important Volcano Types (***)

*** is number of citations in Volcanoes of the World, Simpkin and Siebert, 1994. This
book tabulates active volcanoes and is focused primarily on the observable subaerial
volcanoes.

fissure volcanoes (21) occur along rapidly spreading mid-ocean rifts. They are
linear vents 10s or even 100s of km long, separated by oceanic transform faults. They
erupt pillow basalts and sheet flows from fissures along their axis. Mid-ocean rift
volcanism is the dominant volcanic process on earth, by far the most voluminous.
Because most of it is submarine it is rarely observed, causes little damage and gets little
attention from volcanologists. Pillow lavas, piles of bulbous lava balloons are typical
lavas of mid ocean ridges.

shield volcanoes (164) occur along slowly spreading ridges in great profusion.
They are also dominant at hot spots and moderately abundant at convergent margins.
They are vents where fluid lava predominates over viscous lava or tephra. They can be a
few km in diameter or a few hundred km in diameter. They have a low slope (10º or less)
that typically becomes progressively more shallow near the summit. Large shields often
have collapse calderas at their summits.

stratovolcanoes (699) (a.k.a. composite cones) occur mostly at convergent plate

margins and are the dominant subaerial volcano type. Clean examples, like Mt. Fugi in
Japan, create the dominant image of what a volcano is. They are vents where tephra and
lava are both common. Their lower slopes are mostly volcanic debris, tephra and lava
fragments, deposited by eruption or subsequent lahars or stream deposition. The middle
to upper slopes have more and more lava and the slope progressively steepens toward the
summit, reaching as much as 35º.

calderas (83) come in a variety of types and occur at hotspots, convergent

margins and mid-ocean ridges. Primarily they are collapse features caused by the
evacuation of a magma reservoir beneath the volcano. At hotspots and mid-ocean
volcanoes the magma withdrawals are usually caused by fissure eruptions from the lower
portions of the volcano. At convergent margins, most calderas are the result of violent
explosions of huge volumes of magma into the atmosphere. The magma turns into a gas-
rich froth, explodes into fragments and out of the vent. It then either rises by thermal
convection into the atmosphere and settles as fall blanketing the surrounding countryside
or falls down the side of the volcano as a flow demolishing and burying whatever is in its
path.
calderas are larger than craters, the vents of simple composite volcanoes or cinder
cones. Calderas and craters are not unambiguously separated but anything with a
diameter of 5 km or more is almost surely a caldera. Sector collapse creates a horseshoe
shaped caldera on stratovolcanoes.

cinder cones (87) occur at all tectonic settings, but must be subaerial. They
result from relatively mild explosive eruptions that generate large tephra sizes whose
trajectories are controlled by ballistics not convection. The result is a small symmetrical
cone (e.g. 300m high) with a central crater. Cinder cones are usually acccompanied by a
lava flow that is of much greater volume. They have slopes of about 30-35º, the repose
angle for gravel size tephra. From the side cinder cones look like smooth flat-topped
cones, and the geometrical term for that shape is a frustrum. These small cones are
probably the most numerous subaerial volcano type. Their life history appears to be short,
just one eruption lasting a few months or years. Therefore they are often called
monogenetic vents Few cinder cones, just the most recent ones, are in the Volcanoes of
the World.

volcanic domes grow to several km3 in size, much larger than cinder cones. They
have a variety of shapes, but have a characteristically rough surface caused by the jumble
of blocks and spines at the surface. Most domes are associated with calderas and
represent the volatile poor residual magma that squeezes slowly to the surface after giant
caldera-forming eruptions. Eruptions from domes include thick, slow moving lava flows,
spine extrusions and pyroclastic flows, thus they are a dangerous type of volcano.

Some interesting small forms include maars, tuff rings, tuff cones. All of these are
formed by water magma interactions. They might have all formed cinder cones had not
water been adjacent, leading to more explosive, phreatic eruptions. See diagrams below

Types of Eruptions
I. LAVA
Rift or fissure eruptions
Hawaiian type: fissure on the flank of a shield volcano
Icelandic type: fissure on a flat lava plain
Lava fountains, curtains of flame or sheets of flame are the typical
appearances of subaerial fissure eruptions at their earliest stage. With time, the fissure seals
off in the areas where it is narrowest because these sections will be coolest. Eventually, most
of the fissure freezes shut and the flow issues from one or two vents, around which a cinder
cone or spatter cone forms.

Composite volcanoes
Summit eruptions: lava issues from central vent
Flank eruptions: lava erupts from a vent (boca) on the flank
Dome extrusions: viscous lavas squeezes out a crack; common as last
stage of a Plinian/Pelean/dome eruption sequence

Lava types
Pahoehoe fluid flow, "ropy" lava, very fluid
Aa debris flow "rough, sharp" lava brittle
Block debris flow "boulders" of lava viscous/broken
II. PYROCLASTICS (hot broken up particles)
A. The gas is steam from surface waters

Phreatic surface water-magma interaction, very explosive, water is

ocean, lake, ground water, crater lake, or summit glacier, forms maars, tuff rings, tuff
cones, lahars (lahars are floods of hot or cold mud from a volcano)

B. The gas (H2O,CO2, Hcl, etc.) is from within the earth

Strombolian many small explosions every 2-20 minutes mildly explosive,

like a pop gun or bubble bursting, ballistic trajectories, low cloud heights, 1 km or less.

Vulcanian Single large explosions, isolated or every few hours,

moderately explosive, like a cannon shot, cloud rises by convection, height a function of
heat (Q), heights up to 10's of km are observed, some ash flows.

Pelean moderate to very explosive, but most dangerous, pyroclastic

flows rush down side of volcano 100 km/hr, almost always follows Plinian eruption.

Plinian most explosive, continuous gas streaming like a fire hose,

goes on for hours or days, height a function of heat flux usually followed by a pelean phase.

Some terminology of pyroclastic rocks

Tephra general term for all pyroclastic rocks

Vesicles name for smooth walled spherical to rod shaped holes in lava and tephra.
Caused by formation of gas bubbles in liquid melt and subsequent freezing of melt into
glass.

Pumice frozen magmatic froth, usually white, usually full of enough gas bubbles to
float in water, usually of dacite to rhyolite composition

Scoria frozen magmatic froth, usually black or dark glass of basalt composition.
Gas bubbles much larger than in pumice, and rock sinks in water

Ash term for smallest tephra particles, usually fragments of vesicle walls

Lapilli larger tephra particles, the smallest are pumice fragments with many
vesicles; large lapilli are up to walnut size

Accretionary lapilli pea-sized tephra made of concentric layers of fine ash. Also known
as mud balls; formed most often in phreatic eruptions because condensing steam causes the
ash particles to aggregate into mud balls.
Some Famous Volcanoes and Eruptions

Krakatau
Giant eruption in 1883 in straits of Java. Pyroclastic flows trigger large tsunamis that kill
about 36,000. Volcanic dust in the atmosphere causes spectacular sunsets for two years.
Climate cools slightly

Tambora
Largest historic eruption. As many as 90,000 Indonesians die in 1815, mainly from
starvation. Largest climatic cooling in 1816 the "year without a summer".

Thera (Santorini)
Giant eruption about (1628 years BC dendrochron; 1623 ice varve). May have helped cause
collapse of Minoan civilization. Probable origin of Atlantis myth. At least as large as
Tambora.

Laki
Giant fissure eruption in Iceland in 1783, 12 km3. Fluorine gas polluted the environment
bringing on crop failure and famine that killed about 10,000. Caused "dry fog" in Europe
that caused Ben Franklin to speculate about the connection of eruptions and weather.

Surtsey
New island just south of Iceland that formed in 1963-67. Spectacular phreatic eruptions
were followed by lava flows once the cone was big enough to shut out the ocean

Heimay
Icelandic island under siege from new volcano fights back with water to cool advancing lava
flows before they could seal off the harbor.

Etna
Largest most active volcano in Europe (in Sicily)

Stromboli
Small volcanic island between Sicily and Italy that has erupted constantly during historic
time. Small "strombolian" eruptions every several minutes.

Vesuvius
Large volcano adjacent to Naples (Italy). Erupted in 79 AD to bury Pompeii and
Herculaneum. Pliny the Elder, a Roman admiral, died in the eruption. The excellent
description by Pliny the Younger led to definition of Plinian style eruption. About 2000 die.

El Chichon
Mexican volcano whose 1982 eruption killed about 3000. Notable for the presence of
calcium Sulfate crystals in the magma and a huge cloud of SO2 gas that stayed in the
atmosphere for about 3 years. Allowed scientists to identify sulfuric acid droplets as the
agent causing climate cooling after large volcanic eruptions.
Nevado del Ruiz
Moderate eruption on Nov. 13, 1985 triggered a mudflow that killed about 29,000, mostly in
the Columbian town of Armero.

Mt. Pelee
Large eruption in 1902 destroys St. Pierre in Martinique and kills about 29,000. Pyroclastic
flows (nuees ardentes) first described here.

Pinatubo
Huge eruption (perhaps largest in this century) helps drive US forces from Philippine air and
naval bases. Calcium sulfate crystals present in the magma and huge amount of sulfuric acid
loaded into atmosphere. Spectacular sunsets and marked cooling (esp. in 1992).

Mauna Loa
Largest volcano on earth, main volcano of the Hawaiian hotspot chain

Kilauea
Currently active volcano in Hawaii

Yellowstone
This national park is a dormant volcano, an ash-flow caldera, caused by a hot spot beneath
the continent. Giant ash-flow eruptions occur about every 700,000 years (2.0 my, 1.3 my,
0.7 my). The most recent eruptions, about 70,000 years ago were rhyolite flows.

Mt. St. Helens

Huge directed blast eruption in 1980 (May 18) that killed about 60-70, followed by Plinian,
Pelean and dome eruptions that were well predicted.

Mt. Lassen
Eruption in 1915 in northern California, largest in continental US prior to Mt. St. Helens

Pavlov
Aleutian volcano active in the late fall, early winter in most years. Most active volcano in
the US outside of Hawaii.

Katmai
Giant pyroclastic flow eruption in 1912 in the Alaska peninsula produces "valley of 10,000
smokes". Largest historic US eruption.

Santa Maria
Giant plinian eruption in 1902 kills about 6,000 in the rich, coffee growing region of
Guatemala. Followed giant thrust earthquake by several months.
Largest explosive eruptions of the 19th and 20th centuries
First Vol
Year Volcano Country Rept. Deaths VEI 10^m3

1991 Cerro Hudson Chile no 0 5 9

1991 Pinatubo Philippines yes > 740 6 10
1982 El Chichón Mexico yes 2,000 5 9
1980 Mount St. Helens USA no 57 5 9
1956 Bezymianny Kamchatka yes 0 5 9
1932 Cerro Azul/Quizapu Chile no 0 >5 9
1912 Novarupta/Katmai Alaska yes 2 6 10
1907 Ksudach Kamchatka yes 0 5 9
1902 Santa Maria Guatemala yes >5,000 6 10
1886 Tarawera NewZealand yes > 150 5 9
1883 Krakatau Indonesia no 36,417 6 10
1854 Shiveluch Kamchatka yes 0 5 9
1835 Cosiguina Nicaragua yes 5-10 5 9
1822 Galunggung Indonesia yes 4,011 5 9
1815 Tambora Indonesia yes 92,000 7 11

Modified from: Simkin, T., 1993. Terrestrial Volcanism In Space And Time, Annu. Rev.
Earth Planet. Sci. 21:427-52.
Vol 109= 1 km3 ,Vol 1010= 10 km3 ,Vol 1011= 100 km3 !!