Volcano

A volcano is a landform usually a mountain, where melted molten rock called lava erupts through the opening at the earth’s surface. There are about 1510 active volcanoes in the world! About 90% of the world’s volcanoes arise in the pacific ring of fire. When the molten rock is below the earth’s surface it is called magma but when it emerges to the earth surface it is called lava. The name volcano comes from the name Vultan which means god of fire in Roman mythology. An eruption begins when pressure in the magma chambers from plates colliding forces the magma up through the conduit and out one of the volcanoes vents. The type of the eruption partly depends on the amount of gases and silica in the magma. The amount of silica determines how sticky/ level of viscosity the magma is and the water provides the explosive potential of steam. The amount of water and silica determines how vicious the volcanoes is e.g.: low water, low silica - runny lava flows (not viscous) where as low water, high silica (very viscous) - pasty lava. Most eruptions are more ash than lava and although most people think that the lava takes most of the victim’s lives from volcanic eruptions it’s actually the ash suffocating the people that kill most of them.