Question

Explain the main types of volcanoes.
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Answer 1

Answer:

Types of Volcanoes

Volcanoes are grouped into four types:

Cinder cones

Composite volcanoes

Shield volcanoes

Lava volcanoes

Cinder Cones

Cinder cones are circular or oval cones made up of small fragments of lava from a single vent that have been blown up. Cinder cones result from eruptions of mostly small pieces of scoria and pyroclastics that build up around the vent.Most cinder cones erupt only once. Cinder cones may form as flank vents on larger volcanoes, or occur on their own.

Composite Volcano

Composite volcanoes are steep-sided volcanoes composed of many layers of volcanic rocks, usually made from high-viscosity lava, ash and rock debris. These types of volcanoes are tall conical mountains composed of lava flows and other ejecta in alternate layers, the strata that give rise to the name.

Composite volcanoes are made of cinders, ash, and lava. Cinders and ash pile on top of each other, lava flows on top of the ash, where it cools and hardens, and then the process repeats.

Shield Volcano

Shield volcanoes are volcanoes shaped like a bowl or shield in the middle with long gentle slopes made by basaltic lava flows. These are formed by the eruption of low-viscosity lava that can flow a great distance from a vent.

They generally do not explode catastrophically. Since low-viscosity magma is typically low in silica, shield volcanoes are more common in oceanic than continental settings. The Hawaiian volcanic chain is a series of shield cones, and they are common in Iceland, as well.

Lava Domes

Lava domes are formed when erupting lava is too thick to flow and makes a steep-sided mound as the lava piles up near the volcanic vent. They are built by slow eruptions of highly viscous lava.

They are sometimes formed within the crater of a previous volcanic eruption. Like a composite volcano, they can produce violent, explosive eruptions, but their lava generally does not flow far from the originating vent.