What is a Volcano?

This is a piece of writing that i did a few weeks ago. I hope you enjoy it.

𝖂𝖍𝖆𝖙 𝖎𝖘 𝖆 𝖁𝖔𝖑𝖈𝖆𝖓𝖔?

A volcano is a mountain or hill, normally a cone shape. It has a crater or vent, which lava, pieces of rocks, extremely hot vapour, and gas, which erupt from the inside of the earth's crust. There are 3 types of volcanoes: the Dormant, Active, and Extinct. Dormant volcanoes are volcanoes that are not currently erupting, but are expected to in the near future. An example of this is Mount Kilimanjaro, which is in Tanzania, and has 3 volcanic openings. It is not currently erupting, but is expected to in the near future. One of the most active volcanoes is Mount Kilauea, in Hawaii, and is nearly 300-600,000 years old, which is very old for such an active volcano. One of the extinct volcanoes is Mount Buninyong, which means it has been inactive for over 10000 years, and is not expected to erupt again. The pacific ring of fire is where most of the eruptions happen, as well as a lot of earthquakes.

The structure of a volcano is different to normal mountains. It’s most well known part of it is the crater, which sits at the top of the volcano. This is where most of the lava flows out of the volcano, as it is the largest opening, and if the volcano should erupt, and it isn’t calm, then it will be spewed out of the crater extremely fast and violently. The lower part of it is the magma chamber, or reservoir, where the lava originates from. Then there is the throat. It is what the lava rushes up to reach the crater and erupt. There is the ash cloud, which while it isn’t part of the actual mountain, is still a large part of it. It can reach for many kilometres, and is deadly. It can make it hard to breathe, block out the sun, and make it even more dangerous to be around an erupting volcano. Another part is the conduit, which is at the very heart of the mountain, where material goes from underneath the surface. That is where the magma reservoir is located.

The difference between lava and magma isn’t that much. Magma is molten rock that is stored underneath the earth's surface, while lava is just molten rock that has managed to reach the surface and escape from a volcano's crater vent or throat. Magma is in the upper mantle, and only becomes lava when it reaches the surface and erupts from a volcano. Lava can either erupt from a volcano violently, and with a lot of force, or calmly, just slowly flowing out of the crater. However, both of these are extremely dangerous, with lava above earth burning many things it touches, and magma below earth, making it hot and hard to reach the core.

A volcano would normally erupt because magma has pushed itself up to the surface. Magma is lighter than rock, so it floats up to the planet surface. Any watery magma flows out of vents and becomes lava. If there is any really thick magma, then it can stop gas bubbles from escaping, which makes a lot of pressure. If there is too much pressure, then the volcano will erupt, normally violently, but occasionally calmly, and cause a lot of destruction.

That is a volcano, a force of nature that is powerful, and can cause a lot of devastation. It has three parts of a life cycle, Active, Dormant, and Extinct. It’s structure is unique, and different to normal mountains. The difference between lava and magma is mostly defined by where they are, and a volcano erupts because of too much pressure. I hope you have learned something useful today, and I hope to inform you of anything else that i may write about.