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Crustal Deformation

Processes Volcanoes,
Folding and Faulting
Results of Plate Movements

Volcano - conical or dome-shaped landform


built by the emission of lava, gases and solid
fragments from a narrow vent in the surface.
Volcanic materials: include: lava, gases and solid
particles - tephra: particles of all sizes, ash,
volcanic bombs .

Landforms of Extrusive
Volcano
The nature of eruption and the resulting
volcanic landforms depend on the nature of
lava:
FELSIC LAVA - high degree of viscosity, resists
flow => violent, often explosive eruptions
causing steep composite cones.
Eruptions of felsic lava typically create strato
volcanoes, also known as composite
volcanoes
Features of a strato volcano:
steep slopes, - lots of tephra, - violent explosions, explosive discharge of gases.

Examples of composite volcanoes are: Mt.

Landforms of Extrusive Volcano --2


MAFIC LAVA - highly fluid => relatively
quiet eruptions causing lava flows
Mafic lava (basaltic) produces effusive
eruptions that create shield volcanoes
with gentle long slopes (e.g. Hawaii)
lava often flows from fissures - cracks on the sides of the volcanic dome to
form extensive deposits of plateau
basalts, or flood basalts

A Volcanic
Cone

Volcanic Mountains &


Islands
Submarine volcanoes sometimes form
Islands (Hawaii, Philippines, Japan, Sicily).
Some of the highest mountains in the world
were formed by volcanoes
a) Mt. Fujiyama in Japan,
b) Mt. Cotopaxi in Ecuador, South America
c) Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa,
d) Mount Shasta in California and Mt.
Rainier in Washington state, USA.

Eruption of Mt. Pinatubo,


Philippines, June 1991

Magma
Magma is a molten or
partially molten rock
beneath the Earth's
surface. When magma
erupts onto the surface,
it is called Lava.
Magma typically
consists of a liquid
portion. Magma collects
inside a volcano's
magma chamber before
it erupts (see diagram).

Lava Flow

Lava is the word for


magma when it erupts
onto the Earth's surface.
Geologists also use the
term to describe the
solidified deposits of lava
flows and fragments
hurled into the air by
explosive eruptions (e.g.,
lava bombs or blocks).
Lava is derived from the
Italian word for stream,
which is derived from the
verb lavare -- to wash.
Left: A fast-moving lava
flow from Mt. Etna in
Sicily.

Volcanic Vent

Vents are openings in


the Earth's crust from
which magma and
volcanic gases escape
onto the ground or into
the atmosphere.
Vents may consist of a
single, circular-shaped
structure, a large
elongated fissure and
fracture, or a tiny
ground crack.
Steam rises from a vent
on Mount Asahidake, a
volcano on Hokkaido,
Japan (see picture on
left).

Caldera

A caldera is a large,
usually circular depression
at the summit of a volcano
formed when magma is
withdrawn or erupted from
a shallow underground
magma reservoir.
Calderas are different
from craters, which are
smaller, circular
depressions created
primarily by explosive
excavation of rock during
eruptions.
Left: Mount Aso vents a
large cloud of steam at
Japan's Aso National Park.
The mountain's caldera is
one of the world's largest.

Tephra

Tephra is a general term for


fragments of volcanic rock
and lava that are blasted
into the air by explosions or
carried upward by hot gases
in eruption columns or lava
fountains.
Tephra includes large,
dense blocks and bombs
and small, light rock debris
such as scoria, pumice and
ash
Picture: A fountain of hot lava
and tephra erupts from a crater
in Hawaii's Kilauea East Rift in
1983

Intrusive & Extrusive Volcanic


Features

Intrusive
volcanoes
Dyke: thin vertical veins of igneous rock that form in
the fractures found within the crust. Because these
intrusive features cool quickly their rocks are
dominated with fine mineral grains.
Sill: horizontal planes of solidified magma that run
parallel to the grain of the original rock deposit
Batholith: large plutonic masses of intrusive rock with
more than 100 square kilometers of surface area.
Volcanic Pipe: if a dyke reaches the surface of the
Earth it is then called a volcanic pipe.

Distribution of Volcanoes

Folding and faulting


Compressional
forces squeeze
sedimentary deposits
that lie between the
converging
continental plates
and folds them into
synclines and
anticlines
Extreme stress and
pressure can cause
rocks to shear along
a plane of weakness
creating a fault.
Lateral forces pull
continental plates
apart to form rift
valleys

Stress and strain


Folding

causes rock to
buckle and fracture
or crumple into
folds.
Folding of initially
flat layers (typically
of sedimentary
rocks) creates fold
belts consisting of:
anticlines - arclike
upfolds, and . . .
synclines troughlike downfolds

Folding

A fold is a bend in
rock that is the
response to
compressional forces.
Folds are most visible
in rocks that contain
layers (strata)

Synclinal folds in bedrock, near Saint-Godard-de-Lejeune,


Canada. (Source:
Natural Resources Canada - Terrain Sciences Division - C
anadian Landscapes
More complex fold types can develop in situations where lateral
pressures become greater. The greater pressure results in

Normal fault: Normal faults occur when tensional


forces act in opposite directions and cause one slab of
the rock to be displaced up and the other slab down.
Tranform or strike-slip faults are produced where
the stresses are exerted parallel to each other. A
well-known example of this type of fault is the
San Andreas fault in California.

A graben and a horst


A graben is
produced when
tensional stresses
result in the
subsidence of a
block of rock. On
a large scale
these features
are known as Rift
Valleys
A horst is the
development of
two reverse faults
causing a block of
rock to be pushed
up over the other
blocks.

The 6000 miles East African Rift Valley

Formed the Red Sea,


and several rift valley
lakes in East Africa:
(Tangayika, Nyansa,
Turkana etc.)
Several block
mountains (horsts)
rise within the rift
valley (Mt. Ruwenzori)

Transcurrent
fault zones on
and off the
West coast of
North America.
(Source: U.S.
Geological
Survey)

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