Volcanoes are found in many parts of the world. Some of them are active, while some are dormant, some are called dead because of their in-active state from last thousands of years. Volcanoes were there on earth even before the humans were born. They are seen as the “balance” of the nature. They are the pressure releasing points of the earth.
1. Three types of volcanoes
The volcanoes are divided into three types. Shield volcanoes have lava of low viscosity. This makes the lava to flow for longer distances. The starto volcanoes erupt ash and rocks and different types of lava and grow to enormous height. The cinder volcanoes make short lived eruptions and make cone of 400 meters of height.
2. Why they erupt
Volcanoes erupt because of the magma that escapes the earth’s crust. 30 km below is the earth’s mental which goes down to the earth’s core. The core is all molten rocks. The molten rocks called magma escape the core and find the weaknesses in the earth’s crust and finally erupt.
3. Lava vs magma
The molten material that resides inside the crust is called magma, as soon as it comes out with other volcanic materials, it is called lava.
4. They can be active, dormant or extinct
Active volcano is one that has been erupted in last hundred years. The dormant is the one which has not erupted in history but has the potential to erupt. The extinct volcano is the one which is dead.
5. Quick growth
Volcanoes can take hundreds of years to build but some are built within a year with active state.
6. 20 erupting now
Geologists say that there are as many as 20 active erupting volcanos present. According to them around 1300 volcanoes erupted in last 10,000 years. But mostly volcanoes erupt in the deep seas. They are mostly not felt because they are in great depths. The recent volcano that erupted causing earth quack was tsunami. Including them there are around 6000 eruptions in last 10,000 years.
7. Volcanoes are dangerous
Volcanoes are very dangerous, because when they erupt, they claim lives of thousands of people. The recent tsunami is china left thousands dead in one day. Also the moving lava, ash etc moves with hundred kilometers per hours speed, crushing everything that comes into its way.
8. Tallest volcano of solar system
The tallest volcano of our solar system is on mars. It is called Olympus moons. It is 27 km tall and measure 550 km. it grew this big because the mars has no tectonic plates. That’s why the pressure from beneath the mars is been released from this point from last thousands of years making it bigger and bigger.
9. Largest and biggest volcanoes on earth
The largest and the biggest volcanoes on earth are side by side in Hawaii. The tallest is mauna kae with elevation of 4,207 meters whereas the largest is mauna lao with elevation of 4,169 meters. Both start from the surface of the sea. From the surface of sea the mauna kae would be 10,203 meters in elevation, taller than the Mount Everest.
10. Farthest point from earth’s center
The farthest point from earth’s center is also a volcano. Chimborazo in Ecuador is the volcano that is the most distant point from the center of the earth. It is because it is located near to the equator of the earth.