9/21/16

Volcanism

Which of these volcanic rocks represents

the greatest danger? Why?
Left: This pumice
floating on a lake in
Argentina?

READ!!!
Chapter 6: 6.00 through 6.10, 6.13 & 6.14
Skim through the rest.
Right: Or this basalt
lava flow in Hawaii?

To make a volcano, the first thing you have to

do is melt rock.
06.01.a1

If you can heat a rock

without changing anything
else (AB, left), it will
melt. But the easiest way
to heat a rock is by
burying it (AC, left); in
this case it doesnt melt.
Why?

At the atomic scale,

temperature is a measure
of how fast atoms are
vibrating (right).
06.01.c1

06.01.a3

As the vibrations (i.e.,

temperature) increase,
atomic bonds break. Once
enough break and pieces
can move, you have a liquid
(left).

Temperature vs Pressure

While increased temperature tends to break atomic

bonds, increased pressure forces atoms closer to each
other and reinforces atomic bonds. So as a rock is
buried both temperature & pressure increase and the
effects cancel each other out.

9/21/16

Sothen how do rocks melt?

Remember This?

Decompression melting
decrease pressure without
lowering temperature; i.e.,
raise a deep hot rock near
the surface.

05.07.c2
06.01.c2

Hydration melting add a

little water into a deep hot
rock, so the melting
temperature decreases.
Where would these things
happen?

What is happening at a mid-ocean ridge?

What about a subduction zone?
Do these places have volcanoes?

06.01.c3

Mid-Ocean Ridges &

Continental Rifts
As crust is pulled apart, hot
asthenosphere rises and
decompresses, melting mantle
rock and producing magma.

Melting at Hotspots
As at divergent plate
boundaries, melting at hotspots
like Hawaii comes from
decompression melting.

Rising, hot buoyant

plume of material.

06.10.a1

06.11.b1

A dark colored and very

fluid lava known as basalt
results from melting of
asthenosphere.

In this case it is believed both

decompression in the
asthenosphere and plus heating
of the lithospheric mantle
contribute to the melting.
06.10.b1

06.11.b2

9/21/16

Some water gets

trapped in ocean
crust as it forms
(Left - remember the
hot springs?). The
water is brought into
the mantle by
subduction, causing it
to melt (Left &
below).

06.10.t1

06.02.a1

As magma rises to the surface,

some of it can solidify & be left
behind, and/or it can melt & mix
with existing rock. This can
greatly change its properties
before it reaches the surface.

Magma breaking off &

absorbing existing rock.

06.02.b2

06.10.c1

Felsic vs Mafic Magma

Felsic
thick, slow
moving
magma.
Often
contains the
mineral
feldspar
when it
cools.
Resulting
volcanic
rock is
called
rhyolite.

Magma
cooling &
staying
here.

Mafic
fluid, fast
moving
magma.
Becomes
the volcanic
rock basalt
when it
cools; i.e.,
what ocean
crust is
made from.

06.02.c1

Halfway between felsic & mafic is called intermediate.

Resulting volcanic rock is called andesite, after the Andes
Mountains of S. America.

06.04.a3

Magma can have

Gas
If water or gases are
trapped in a magma, it
explodes (i.e., water =
steam) out of the magma
violently as it reaches
the surface.
06.04.a4

Which of these is a
gassy felsic magma,
and which is gassy
mafic?

9/21/16

Remember This?

05.07.c2

What Do You Think an Eruption of Low Gas

Mafic Basalt Would Look Like?

h0ps://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=lJwmJt0rS98

Would you expect more gas (which can be water) to

get into a magma?
Which melting process actually involves something that
can turn into a gas at high temperature?

What Do You Think an Eruption of High Gas

Mafic Basalt Would Look Like?

h0ps://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=RgcMc92CYIE

What Do You Think an Eruption of Low Gas

Felsic Rhyolite Would Look Like?

h0ps://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=8KN0uXEOhWU

9/21/16

What Do You Think an Eruption of High Gas

Felsic Rhyolite Would Look Like?

What Type of Volcano Would a Low Gas Mafic

Basalt Make?
06.06.b1

h0ps://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=VXiYQ4Radps

Shield volcano low, sloping dome made from many, many fluid
basalt lava flows. Hawaiian volcanoes like Kilauea and Mauna Loa
are shield volcanoes.

What Type of Volcano Would a High Gas

Mafic Basalt Make?
06.06.a3

Remember SP
Crater?
What happened here?
Why is there both a
scoria cone and a basalt
lava flow?
What does a carbonated
soda taste like after all
the fizz is gone?

Scoria Cone steep sided but usually small volcano made from
small pieces of basalt rock with gas holes (scoria) .

01.07.a2

9/21/16

What Type of Volcano Would a Low Gas Felsic

Rhyolite Make?

What Type of Volcano Would a High Gas

Felsic Rhyolite Make?
06.07.a1

06.06.a3

Lava Dome small, steep pile of slowing growing rhyolite lava.

Usually found as part of a composite volcano.

Which of these volcanic rocks represents

the greatest danger? Why?
Left: This pumice
floating on a lake in
Argentina?

Composite volcano these volcanoes erupt a variety of materials

(i.e., why named composite), which include explosive, felsic
eruptions.

Hazards of Shield Volcanoes/Scoria Cones

06.05.a1

Basalt lava flows (right)

overrun homes & roads, but
usually move to slowly to harm
people. Scoria cones (below)
can be a danger, but only if
you are too close to the
eruption.
06.05.b3

Right: Or this basalt

lava flow in Hawaii?

Iceland has
dangerous shield
volcanoes (left),
because melting
ice mixes with
magma & makes
them explosive.

06.05.b1

9/21/16

Flood Basalt
Very large basalt lava flows
are called flood basalts. These
typically erupt from fissures
and can spread out over large
areas (i.e., of Oregon &
Washington). 2014-2015
eruption in Iceland (below)
covered 33 sq miles (85 km2),
fortunately in a remote region.

Mt Nyiragongo
06.06.c1

Volcano in the East

African Rift, on the
border between Congo
& Rwanda. Has very
fluid basalt lava than
flow up to 40 mph.
It erupted in 2002 and
lava flows entered the
city of Goma (left). 147
people were trapped &
killed and ~120,000 left
homeless by the lava
flow.

Hazards of Composite Volcanoes - Ashfall

06.07.a2

Hazards of Composite Volcanoes Pyroclastic

Flows

06.07.a3

Volcanic ash (small shards of

volcanic glass) can rise into the
stratosphere and spread across
the globe. They can block
sunlight & cool the Earth, and
seriously damage jet engines.

Hot, dense ash & rock flows down

side of volcano up to 100 mph (left).
Pyroclastic flows from Vesuvius in
Italy covered Roman city of Pompeii
(below).
06.08.a2

Close to volcano thick

ash kills plants and
even causes roof
collapses in buildings
(right Rabaul, New
Guinea, 1998).

9/21/16

Hazards of Composite Volcanoes Lava Domes

Lava domes can grow larger
than the crater of volcano.
When they do, hot rock
avalanches from growing lava
domes also create pyroclastic
flows (left).

1991 Mt Unzen Lava Dome Collapse

06.07.t1

Plymouth, former capital city

of Montserrat in the
Caribbean (right), was
destroyed by lava dome
collapses from Soufriere Hills
volcano between 1995 &
1999. Ironically, musician
Jimmy Buffet wrote hit song
Volcano there in 1979.

Hazards of Composite Volcanoes Lava Domes

06.08.c1

Lava domes can also act like a cork in

bottle, creating additional pressure
when a gas-rich magma rises from
below, as at Mt St Helens before
1980 eruption (above). An earthquake
& landslide eventually removed lava
dome (right), creating an opening for
an explosive eruption.

06.08.c4-6

h0ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJ-
sngPi7JI

Hazards of Composite Volcanoes Mudflows

If water mixes with volcanic
ash, it can create a fastmoving volcanic mudflow (also
called lahar) that travels
down river valleys. Snowcovered volcanoes like Mt
Rainier (left) commonly have
mudflows when they erupt.

06.14.a2

Lahars can potentially

continue for years after an
eruption. After 1991 Mt
Pinatubo eruption, every
rainy season in the
Philippines created new
lahars that threatened
riverside towns near the
volcano (right).

9/21/16

Why are there volcanoes in large lakes in El Salvador?

06.09.c1

Calderas
Extremely large ash
eruptions can empty a
magma chamber under a
volcano, causing it to
collapse and form a
caldera like Santorini
(left) ~1500 BCE.
06.09.c3

San Salvador

This may be the source of

lost civilization of Atlantis
(right).

06.01.c1

Caldera eruptions require

large amounts of wet
felsic magma. Continental
hotspot volcanoes with
many hot springs (e.g.,
Yellowstone) have this.

Crater Lake, Oregon

(right) is a mis-named
caldera created ~5700
BCE. Lake Taupo, New
Zealand (below) was
created by largest
eruption in past 70,000
years.

Both Crater Lake and Taupo

are composite volcanoes
formed above subduction
zones. Many subduction zone
volcanoes form calderas.

06.09.d1

06.09.d2

9/21/16

Consider the situation below: What type of volcano is

this? What hazards do the 3 villages face?

06.13.b1

10