Volcano Types Essay

The distructive power of a valcano is one of the most violent and deadly of allnatural forces.

In a short period of time, these massive explosions of theearths crust can shatter whole communities. Valcanoes are very distructive nomatter how big or how small they erupt at. They cause the highest amount ofdeaths and the greatest amount of damage. Of the two major types of Volcanoes,andestic and basaltic, the two typical volcanoes begin life when a mass oflow-density magma forces its way to the surface.

When the density of the risingmagma is the same as that of the surrounding rock, it gathers in a magmachamber. Any rise in pressure in the chamber may now push the magma upwardsthrough cracks in the overlying rock. As the magma traveling up a crackapproaches the surface, the pressure from the overlying rocks reduces; gases arereleased from the magma and expand so suddenly that an explosion rips open afunnel shaped vent (called a diatreme) to the surface. The lava that blasts outof the vent then cools, to form cinders, ash and dust – all referred to as"Tephra".

A ring of tephra collects around the vent and, as theeruption subsides, this blocks up the diatreme. Volcanoes have erupted in manydifferent places. Volcanoes have erupted in The Philippines, Java, Papua NewGuinea & Hawaii and many other places. "The Ring of Fire", locatedaround the Pacific Ocean, is 20 or so places with active volcanoes in themjoined by one big imaginary line that forms a circle (or "Ring") whenscaled down to the size on a map. Somewhere in the world an eruption occurs atleast once a month. Whether it be big or small it doesnt really matter atall.

If it kills 1 person or 1 000 people it is still counted as an eruption. Insome countries volcanoes are common and erupt frequently as in Hawaii. But inother countries like Australia there are no eruptions at all. That could bebecause all the volcanoes are dormant or there are simply no volcanoes at all. In 1815, the most devastating eruption ever recorded, killed approximately 92000 people.

10 000 people died directly from the volcano and a further 82 000died from famine. The volcano is located at Tambora, Sumbawa in Indonesia. Recently a volcano erupted in Monserrat, West Indies. It devastated farms,houses and streets became rivers of lava.Geography .