Volcanoes

                                                 
                                   
    A volcano is a place on the earth or any other planet, or moon’s surface, where molten rock, debris and gasses erupt from below the earth’s surface through the earth’s crust. Volcanoes vary quite a bit in their structure. Some are cracks in the earth’s crust where lava escapes, and some are domes or mountain like structures with a crater at the summit. Volcanoes are mountains that get taller as they erupt. The lava builds up and they get taller. In simple terms, a volcano is a mountain that opens downward to a pool of magma below the surface of the earth. The most common perception of a volcano is of a cone shaped mountain spewing lava, poisonous gasses and ashes from a crater at its summit. This describes just one of many types of volcano and the features are more complicated. The structure and behavior of volcanoes depend on many factors. Some volcanoes have rugged peaks formed by lava domes rather than a summit crater, where others present landscape features such as massive plateaus. Vents that shoot volcanic material such as lava and gasses can be located anywhere on the landform.
    Between the earth’s crust and the mantle is a molten substance called magma that is made up of rock and gasses. Magma is molten rock within the earths crust. When magma erupts through the earth’s surface it is called lava. Lava is liquid rock that flows out of   volcanoes. Lava can be thick and slow moving or thin and fast moving. Rock also comes from volcanoes in other forms, including ash, cinders, and pumice.
The word volcano is thought to derive from Vulcano an active volcano on the Italian island of Lipari whose name originates from the god of fire in Roman mythology, Vulcan who they believed lived inside the earth. The study of volcanoes is called volcanology, sometimes spelled vulcanology.
    Volcanoes tend to exist along the edges between tectonic plates which... [continues]

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