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Processes Volcanoes,
Folding and Faulting
Results of Plate Movements
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.
A Volcanic
Cone
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
Volcanic Vent
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withdrawn or erupted from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
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
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)
Transcurrent
fault zones on
and off the
West coast of
North America.
(Source: U.S.
Geological
Survey)