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What Is A Volcano?
A volcano is simply a mountain over a "hot spot" or two plates pulling apart to let the magma flow through and cool to build up a mountain. A "hot spot" is a magma chamber beneath the surface.
How Does A Volcano Explode?
Magma underneath the surface is kept under pressure by rocks. When a earthquake occurs, it shifts the rocks around letting the magma force up. The pressure from the magma is so great it sometimes cracks the earth. When the land can no longer hold the pressure, the magma shoots up and the magma becomes lava.
Are There Different Kinds Of Volcanoes?
There are three different kinds of volcanoes. There are...
Each volcano is different. (The one we think of when we think of volcanoes is the cinder cone volcano.) The cinder cone volcano is made up of cinders. This type of volcano does not get to be too big because it erodes quickly. Like the famous Mount Saint Helens(check out other famous and deadly volcanoes like Mt. St.Helens) most composite cones blow out the side and are made up of layers of dirt and cinders. Shield volcanoes, such as the ones is Hawaii, can get to a good size because they do not erode quickly. They are made up of dirt and layers of cooled lava.
Ever heard of an underwater volcano? Click here for more information!
For more information on volcanoes check out...
To view Volcano World, click here!
Click here to look at MTU's volcano page!
To look at this cool web page, (http://www.dur.ac.uk/~d57514/vol.html)click here!