about volcano~*

Divergent plate boundaries
At the mid-oceanic ridges, two tectonic plates diverge from one another. New oceanic crust is being formed by hot molten rock slowly cooling down and solidifying. In these places, the crust is very thin and eruptions occur frequently because of the pull by the tectonic plates. The main part of the mid-oceanic ridges are at the bottom of the ocean, and most volcanic activity is submarine. Black smokers are a typical example of this kind of volcanic activity. Where the mid-oceanic ridge comes above sea-level, volcanoes like the Hekla on Iceland are formed. Divergent plate boundaries create new seafloor and volcanic islands.



Convergent plate boundaries
Subduction zones, as they are called, are places where two plates, usually an oceanic plate and a continental plate, collide. In this case, the oceanic plate subducts, or submerges under the continental plate forming a deep ocean trench just offshore. The crust is then melted by the heat from the mantle and becomes magma. This surplus amount of magma generated in one location causes the formation of the volcano. Typical examples for this kind of volcano are the volcanoes in the Pacific Ring of Fire, Mount Etna.



Hotspots
Hotspots are not located on the ridges of tectonic plates, but on top of mantle plumes, where the convection of Earth's mantle creates a column of hot material that rises until it reaches the crust, which tends to be thinner than in other areas of the Earth. The temperature of the plume causes the crust to melt and form pipes, which can vent magma. Because the tectonic plates move whereas the mantle plume remains in the same place, each volcano becomes dormant after a while and a new volcano is then formed as the plate shifts over the hotspot. The Hawaiian Islands are thought to be formed in such a manner, as well as the Snake River Plain, with the Yellowstone Caldera being the current part of the North American plate over the hotspot.



Erupted material


Lava composition
Another way of classifying volcanoes is by the composition of material erupted (lava), since this affects the shape of the volcano. Lava can be broadly classified into 4 different compositions (Cas & Wright, 1987):


If the erupted magma contains a high percentage (>63%) of silica, the lava is called felsic.

Felsic lavas (or rhyolites) tend to be highly viscous (not very fluid) and are erupted as domes or short, stubby flows. Viscous lavas tend to form stratovolcanoes or lava domes. Lassen Peak in California is an example of a volcano formed from felsic lava and is actually a large lava dome.
Because siliceous magmas are so viscous, they tend to trap volatiles (gases) that are present, which cause the magma to erupt catastrophically, eventually forming stratovolcanoes. Pyroclastic flows (ignimbrites) are highly hazardous products of such volcanoes, since they are composed of molten volcanic ash too heavy to go up into the atmosphere, so they hug the volcano's slopes and travel far from their vents during large eruptions. Temperatures as high as 1,200 °C are known to occur in pyroclastic flows, which will incinerate everything flammable in their path and thick layers of hot pyroclastic flow deposits can be laid down, often up to many meters thick. Alaska's Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, formed by the eruption of Novarupta near Katmai in 1912, is an example of a thick pyroclastic flow or ignimbrite deposit. Volcanic ash that is light enough to be erupted high into the Earth's atmosphere may travel many kilometres before it falls back to ground as a tuff.
If the erupted magma contains 52-63% silica, the lava is of intermediate composition.

These "andesitic" volcanoes generally only occur above subduction zones (e.g. Mount Merapi in Indonesia).