The Variations of Viscous Volcanic Volcanoes

Volcanoes. They're huge (or small); and can destroy people's lives in a matter of time. Basically they erupt when magma reaches the earth through a tunnel called a vent and from the great pressure, cause a violent eruption. But what really causes all this to happen? What's happening so deep down in the earth? What's behind the closed curtains, dwindling in the dark? I'm here to uncover some of this information.

I'll start with a simple definition and then go on to tell about how they get there; how they come to erupt and what some of the causes of them are.

Volcano- an opening in the crusts earth which allows some different substances -mostly magma- to reach the earth's surface through a hole called a vent.

Deep down underneath the ground we stand on is a mountain of activity. One of which is the moving of the earth's crusts, which move in many different directions. The main one of this particular topic is outward and inward moving of the crusts. The pressure underneath the surface of the earth is very strong, so if an opening appears (like when two plates pull apart), the magma rushes up to the surface, and then hardens. Ash and gases can also escape from this vent. When plates push towards each other, the thin plate gets pushed down into the earth, and as the lighter plate is pushed down, magma is formed and occasionally reaches the surface, where a new volcano is now formed. A large amount of the volcanoes are formed where land plates and oceanic plates meet.

Volcanoes erupt when earth's rock becomes hot enough to melt, which is not as heavy as solid rock. Since it is lighter, it is caused to rise where it makes its journey up the vent to the earth's surface. A violent eruption is only caused when the magma contains water and gases, which it very commonly can. When it comes to the surface the water and gases will expand rapidly causing a large eruption, spewing magma, water ash and varying gases.

When a volcano erupts and there is a city nearby, even a small eruption can do damage. Magma can destroy a city in a short time, and ash can cover a city completely, wrecking everything. Death is something that can occur from an eruption, mainly because of toxic gases filling the air, and fumes overwhelming the city. Common gases that come out of a volcanic eruption are water vapour, carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide, and these can be deadly.

Here is a short video to show an eruption of a volcano;


This find this video relevant to this post, because it is about a volcano erupting. Since this is about volcanoes, I found it interesting, and also educational. I found this video on www.youtube.com.

I hope you enjoyed my blog, keep posted and there will be more.

Steph