a few hundred years ago scientists
believed that volcanoes were burning
mountains of fire today we know they’re
really openings or vents to the hot
interior of the planet about 1,500
volcanoes around the world are
classified as active nearly 90 percent
of these rest in the Ring of Fire a band
circling the Pacific Ocean their
location is no accident while the
Earth’s surface looks stable its crust
is made up of immense slabs of rock like
puzzle pieces that constantly shift
where these tectonic plates interact
volcanoes often form friction from
shifting plates melts the Earth’s crust
causing rock beneath the crust to
liquefy this molten rock or magma then
becomes a volcano by erupting through
rifts in the plates once magma escapes
from the earth
it’s called lava but not all lava is the
same runny lava flows quickly and forms
the gentle slopes of shield volcanoes
thick sticky lava doesn’t flow as far
and tends to form the steeper slopes of
composite volcanoes composite volcanoes
can erupt violently curling ash and lava
at speeds up to 200 miles per hour these
eruptions sometimes blow away large
chunks of the volcano itself some
volcanoes like Hawaii’s Kilauea form
over hot spots in the Earth’s crust
where magma rises in the middle of a
tectonic plate Kilauea is one of the
most active volcanoes on the planet and
as erupted continuously since 1983
because Kilauea is a shield volcano this
constant eruption is a gentle one lava
oozing from Kilauea constantly hardens
into new land making Hawaii the only
state that’s still growing
living near a volcano can be hazardous
as the residents of Pompeii learned in
the year 79 AD when Mount Vesuvius
erupted spewing superheated ash
poisonous gas and rocks this deadly
combination called a pyroclastic flow is
far more dangerous than a lava flow
Vesuvius buried Pompeii claiming the
lives of 2,000 people though volcanoes
can be deadly they also provide benefits
volcanoes created 80% of the Earth’s
surface as well as much of the air we
breathe today
volcanoes create rich soil for farming
and many countries harness their
subsurface heat to create geothermal
energy both creators and destroyers
volcanoes prove that beneath its calm
surface earth remains a living planet
and a Restless one
believed that volcanoes were burning
mountains of fire today we know they’re
really openings or vents to the hot
interior of the planet about 1,500
volcanoes around the world are
classified as active nearly 90 percent
of these rest in the Ring of Fire a band
circling the Pacific Ocean their
location is no accident while the
Earth’s surface looks stable its crust
is made up of immense slabs of rock like
puzzle pieces that constantly shift
where these tectonic plates interact
volcanoes often form friction from
shifting plates melts the Earth’s crust
causing rock beneath the crust to
liquefy this molten rock or magma then
becomes a volcano by erupting through
rifts in the plates once magma escapes
from the earth
it’s called lava but not all lava is the
same runny lava flows quickly and forms
the gentle slopes of shield volcanoes
thick sticky lava doesn’t flow as far
and tends to form the steeper slopes of
composite volcanoes composite volcanoes
can erupt violently curling ash and lava
at speeds up to 200 miles per hour these
eruptions sometimes blow away large
chunks of the volcano itself some
volcanoes like Hawaii’s Kilauea form
over hot spots in the Earth’s crust
where magma rises in the middle of a
tectonic plate Kilauea is one of the
most active volcanoes on the planet and
as erupted continuously since 1983
because Kilauea is a shield volcano this
constant eruption is a gentle one lava
oozing from Kilauea constantly hardens
into new land making Hawaii the only
state that’s still growing
living near a volcano can be hazardous
as the residents of Pompeii learned in
the year 79 AD when Mount Vesuvius
erupted spewing superheated ash
poisonous gas and rocks this deadly
combination called a pyroclastic flow is
far more dangerous than a lava flow
Vesuvius buried Pompeii claiming the
lives of 2,000 people though volcanoes
can be deadly they also provide benefits
volcanoes created 80% of the Earth’s
surface as well as much of the air we
breathe today
volcanoes create rich soil for farming
and many countries harness their
subsurface heat to create geothermal
energy both creators and destroyers
volcanoes prove that beneath its calm
surface earth remains a living planet
and a Restless one
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