Type of solidified lava with a clinkery surface, sharp and broken into many pieces.

A'a' lava is the most common appearance type of lava flows that cool down forming fragmented, rough, sometimes spiny, or blocky surfaces.
A'a' lava forms when the viscosity of the lava (e.g. because of high gas bubbles content and relatively low temperatures) and/or the strain rate of the flow (related mainly to eruption rate and steepness of the ground) are high. When these factors change, the same original lava can sometimes produce the other end-member known as pahoehoe lava, which has a smooth, often twisted surface. In addition, transitional types of lava between both a'a and pahoehoe lava can be found. -> See whole entry

Related keywords (2):

lava - pahoehoe

Small spherical balls of volcanic ash

Accretionary lapilli are small spherical balls of volcanic ash that form from a wet nucleus falling through a volcanic ash cloud. They can flatten on hitting the ground or may roll on loose ash and grow like a snowball. -> See whole entry

Salt lake in Ethiopia

Salt lake in the Danakil area in Ethiopia -> See whole entry

Andesite is a gray to black volcanic rock with between about 52 and 63 weight percent silica (SiO2). Andesites are typical for lava domes and stratovolcanoes.

Andesite is an igneous, volcanic rock, of intermediate composition, containing between about 52 and 63 weight % silica (SiO2).
Andesites contain crystals composed primarily of plagioclase feldspar and one or more of the minerals pyroxene (clinopyroxene and orthopyroxene) and lesser amounts of hornblende. At the lower end of the silica range, andesite lava may also contain olivine. Andesite magma commonly erupts from stratovolcanoes as thick lava flows, some reaching several km in length. Andesite magma can also generate strong explosive eruptions to form pyroclastic flows and surges and enormous eruption columns. Andesites erupt at temperatures between 900 and 1100° C.
Andesite can be considered as the extrusive equivalent to plutonic diorite. Andesites are characteristic of subduction tectonic environments in active oceanic margins, such as the western coast of South America. The name andesite is derived from the Andes mountain range.
 
Andesite is a characteristic rock on the volcano peninsula Methana and on Nisyros island. Most lava domes on Methana are composed of andesitic rocks. Interesting is the phenomenon of magma-mixing that is thought to be a driving force in many explosive eruptions where the relatively cool andesitic lava is involved: basaltic intrusions in such a magma-chamber heat up the magma and chemical reactions activate such a magma. The result may be a lava dome like Merapi (Indonesia) or Montserrat. -> See whole entry

Fine-grained volcanic products, usually produced by explosive volcanic eruptions.

Volcanic ash has nothing to do with fire, but is a mere definition of grain-size. Ash can range in size from sandy to extremely fine; any fragment ejected by a volcano less than 2 mm in diameter is called ash. It may consists of freshly ejected lava (usually turned into a glass shard because of rapid cooling), older fragmented rock, or small crystals.
Ash is produced by explosive activity when expanding gas fragments other material (uprising lava, surrounding rock). The more explosive an eruption, the more ash is usually produced. Hot ash can easily mix with air and erupted gasses and then form an eruption column. If the eruption column is buoyant it will rise to tens of km into the atmosphere during violent eruptions. These ash clouds can then be carried hundreds and thousands of km by wind, even circle the entire hemisphere for a few years before the finest particles are washed out. Ash-loaded eruption columns can also become too dense to rise vertically; instead, they will then collapse to form (usually hot) avalanches, so-called pyroclastic flows.
It is very common to observe that ash particles stick together to form small aggregates, so-called accretionary lapilli, enabling the ash to deposit because of the dramatically increased fall velocity of the aggregate.
Volcanic ash is a serious hazard to life and property; it can cause breathing problems, heavy ash loads on buildings cause the roofs to collapse. Ash plumes in the atmosphere threaten air traffic seriously, because ash even in small concentrations can disable jet engines. -> See whole entry

Related keywords (3):

pumice - pyroclastic flow - ashfall

Volcanic ash fall is the deposition of ash from the air from eruption plumes emitted during explosive volcanic eruptions.

The most common type of volcanic rock, with a relatively low silica content and typically erupted at shield volcanoes.

Basalt is the usually hard and black volcanic rock formed from (liquid) balsalitc lava. Balsaltic lava contains less than about 52 percent silica (SiO2) by weight. Because of its low silica content, it has a low viscosity (resistance to flow). Therefore, basaltic lava can quickly and easily flow more than 20 km from a vent. The low viscosity typically allows volcanic gases to escape without generating enormous eruption columns, although basaltic lava fountains and fissure eruptions, however, still can be hundreds of meters tall. Basaltic lava is erupted at temperatures between 1100 to 1250°C.
Basalt is by far the most common volcanic rock type. Basaltic magma is formed by partial melting of material from the upper mantle, and and is therefore typical for volcanism at hot-spots and at rift-zones. In these areas, upwelling of the mantle (either caused by a rising mantle plume underneath hot-spots, or by a divergent plate boundary at mid-ocean rift zones) decreases the pressure of the hot rock and therefore causes (partial) melting.
Oceanic crust and submarine volcanoes consist largely of basalt, because most of them are formed at rift-zones (all ocean floor) or hot-spots. Among subaerial volcanoes, basaltic lava is primarily found at shield volcanoes.
 
Basaltic lava flows can be subdivided into two end-member structural types, according to their flow surfaces:
-- Pahoehoe lava - smooth, billowy, or ropy surface.
-- A'a' lava - fragmented, rough, sometimes spiny, or blocky surface
 
 
  -> See whole entry

Related keywords (2):

andesite - scoria

Base surges are ground hugging, fast outward moving and turbulent, dilute clouds of gas and ash. They result from water magma interactions (violent steam explosions). During the 1965 eruption of Taal volcano (Philippines), such base surges were first observed. Some of them traveled 4 km and killed 189 people. Base surges were first identified during ocean nuclear weapons explosions in the Pacific. -> See whole entry

Volcanic blocks are solidified rock fragments greater than 64 mm in diameter. Blocks commonly are ejected during explosive eruptions and consist of older pieces of the volcano's edifice, e.g. parts of the conduit, lava domes or older lava flows.

During violent eruptions, blocks of up to several meter size can be thrown to several km distance. For example, during the Minoan eruption (ca. 1613 BC) of the Santorini volcano in Greece, meter-sized blocks were thrown to up to 7 km horizontal distance and impacted violently into the ground, some of them destroying houses of ancient settlements. The time some of these blocks spent on their trajectories can be easily calculated to be around 30-40 seconds, while they have traveled at speeds of typically 200-300 m/s. -> See whole entry

Related keywords (2):

breadcrust bomb - bomb

Lava flow with huge rocks that are pushed bei following lava

Lava flow with huge rocks that are pushed bei following lava -> See whole entry

Ejected fragments of fresh magma larger than 64 mm in diameter, often shaped aerodynamically during their flight.

Volcanic bombs are lava fragments larger than 64 mm in diameter that were ejected while still viscous and partially molten. Many bombs acquire rounded aerodynamic shapes during their travel through the air. Volcanic bombs include breadcrust bombs, ribbon bombs, spindle bombs (with twisted ends), spheroidal bombs, and "cow-dung" bombs. -> See whole entry

Related keywords (2):

breadcrust bomb - block

Volcanic bomb with a cracked surface, similar to bread, caused by the slow expansion of the interior gas bubbles while cooling.

A breadcrust bomb is a volcanic bomb with a cracked and checkered surface, sometimes resembling the surface of a loaf of bread. The cracks develop when the outer surface of a partially molten lava fragment cools to form a brittle surface and then subsequently cracks as the hot interior expands due to the continued growth of gas bubbles. -> See whole entry

Related keywords (2):

block - bomb

Large crater, usually several kilometers across, formed by the collapse of the roof of a magma chamber emptied by large explosive eruptions.

A caldera is a large, usually circular depression at the summit of a volcano formed when magma is withdrawn or erupted from a shallow underground magma reservoir. The removal of large volumes of magma may result in loss of structural support for the overlying rock, thereby leading to collapse of the ground and formation of a large depression. Calderas are different from craters, which are smaller, circular depressions created primarily by explosive excavation of rock during eruptions. (From USGS Photoglossary).
Actually, calderas are a very common feature with most larger volcanoes. During the lifetime of a typical volcano, larger caldera-forming eruptions (that typically discharge around 1 km3 of magma or more) tend to ocur at typical time intervals of a few 1000 years. Subsequent smaller eruptions often rebuid the cone of the volcano, so that earlier calderas often are not easily visible.
Famous calderas include Santorini in Greece, the Campi Flegrei caldera, Italy, Crater Lake caldera in Oregon (USA), Yellowstone Caldera, Wyoming (USA), Long Valley Caldera in east California (USA), Batur, Tengger and Krakatoa volcanoes (Indonesia) and many more.
 
-- The largest eruption of the 20th century from the Novarupta vent in the Valley of 10,000 Smokes of Alaska, ejected about 12 km3 of magma and resulted in the formation of a caldera 3 km across. Amazingly, the caldera collapse didn't occur at the eruption vent, but 10 km away at Katmai, a stratovolcano! Apparently magma drained away from Katmai's magma reservoir to Novarupta's erupting vent.
-- Yellowstone National Park consists of three enormous calderas that erupted about 2, 1.2, and 0.6 million years ago. The most recent caldera is 45 km across and 75 km long!
-- Caldera-forming eruptions are the largest eruptions on Earth. For example, the Fish Canyon eruption in southwestern Colorado (United States) about 28 million years ago erupted more than 5,000 km3 of magma from La Garita caldera. That's enough magma to bury the entire state of California to a depth of nearly 12 m!
(from: USGS Photoglossary)
  -> See whole entry

A cinder cone (or often also called scoria cone) is a steep, conical hill of volcanic fragments that accumulate around and downwind from a vent. The rock fragments, often called cinders or scoria, are glassy and usually contain numerous gas bubbles "frozen" into place as magma exploded into the air and then cooled quickly. Cinder cones range in size from tens to hundreds of meters tall and are usually formed by lava fountains or strombolian eruptions.

Cinder cones are the most common, and also smallest type of volcano. They can occur as individual volcanoes, or (more often) as parasitic cones generated by flank eruptions on shield volcanoes and stratovolcanoes. Scoria cones are composed almost wholly of ejected basaltic tephra, most commonly of lapilli- and bomb-size fragments.
 
Some interesting facts:

• Cinder cones usually erupt lava flows, either through a breach on one side of the crater or from a vent located on a flank. Lava rarely issues from the top (except as a fountain) because the loose, non cemented cinders are too weak to support the pressure exerted by molten rock as it rises toward the surface through the central vent.


• Perhaps the most famous cinder cone, Paricutin, grew out of a corn field in Mexico in 1943 from a new vent. Eruptions continued for 9 years, built the cone to a height of 424 meters, and produced lava flows that covered 25 km2.


• Geologists have identified nearly 100 cinder cones on the flanks of Mauna Kea, a shield volcano located on the Island of Hawai`i. On Etna volcano in Italy, there are even more than 300 known cinder cones from prehistoric and historic flank eruptions. Even more might have existed, but have over time been buried beneath lava flows.


• Usually, cinder cones corresponding to flank eruptions of a volcano erupt only once and can be regarded as extinct already shortly after their activity ceases.

-> See whole entry

Related keywords (2):

Volcanology photoglossary: explanation of volcanologic terms - Ia

Dacite is an igneous, volcanic rock with a high iron content found at many lava-domes.

Dacite (pronounced /deɪsaɪt/) is an igneous, volcanic rock with a high iron content. It is intermediate in compositions between andesite and rhyolite, and, like andesite, it consists mostly of plagioclase feldspar with biotite, hornblende, and pyroxene (augite and/or enstatite). It has an aphanitic to porphyritic texture with quartz as rounded, corroded phenocrysts, or as an element of the ground-mass. The relative proportions of feldspars and quartz in dacite, and in many other volcanic rocks, are illustrated in the QAPF diagram. Dacite is also defined by silica and alkali contents in the TAS classification.
 
The plagioclase ranges from oligoclase to andesine and labradorite, and is often very zoned. Sanidine occurs also in some dacites, and when abundant gives rise to rocks that form transitions to the rhyolites. The biotite is brown; the hornblende brown or greenish brown; and the augite is usually green.
 
The groundmass of these rocks is often microcrystalline, with a web of minute feldspars mixed with interstitial grains of quartz or tridymite; but in many dacites it is largely vitreous, while in others it is felsitic or cryptocrystalline. In hand specimen many of the hornblende and biotite dacites are grey or pale brown and yellow rocks with white feldspars, and black crystals of biotite and hornblende. Other dacites, especially augite and enstatite dacites, are darker colored.
 
The rocks of this group occur in Romania, Almeria (Spain), Argyll and other parts of Scotland, Bardon Hill in Leicestershire, New Zealand, the Andes, Martinique, Nevada and other regions of western North America, Greece (Methana, Nisyros, Santorini) as well as other places. They are mostly associated with andesites and trachytes, and form lava flows, dikes, and in some cases form massive intrusions in the centers of volcanoes. Dacite is an important rock type at Mount St. Helens.
 
The word dacite comes from Dacia, a province of the Roman Empire which lay between the Danube River and Carpathian Mountains (now modern Romania) where the rock was first described.
  -> See whole entry

Related keywords (3):

Nisyros - Palea Kameni - Methana

A sudden collapse of volcanic material from an unstable side of a volcano. Debris avalanches are a particularly violent type of pyroclastic flows (in its broader meaning).

Pathways of rising magma inside vertical fissures.

Dikes are imaginable as the veins of a volcano, the pathways of rising magma. A dike is called a -usually more or less vertical- flat, sheet-like magma body that cuts unconformingly through older rocks or sediments.
 
Most dikes can be described as fractures into which magma intrudes or from which they might erupt. The fracture can be caused by the intrusion of pressurized magma, or vice versa, the rise of magma can be caused by and exploit existing or tectonically forming fractures. The point where a dike reaches the surface and erupts lava can be called a vent.
 
The interior of a typical large volcanic edifice is crossed by hundreds of dikes. Very often, dikes occur as swarms concentrated within zones of structural weakness within a volcanic edifice. This is nicely illustrated by the dikes exposed at the caldera cliffs of NE Santorini, where the interior structure of ancient stratovolcanoes (ca. 500-300 ka) of northern Santorini (Thera) is exposed (photos below). These dikes follow a structural trend of volcanism on Santorini (read more of Santorini's geology on the Santorini pages).
  -> See whole entry

A fissure vent, also known as a volcanic fissure or simply fissure, is a linear volcanic vent through which lava erupts.

A fissure vent, also known as a volcanic fissure or simply fissure, is a linear volcanic vent through which lava erupts, usually without any explosive activity. The vent is usually a few meters wide and may be many kilometers long. Fissure vents can cause large flood basalts and lava channels. This type of volcano is usually hard to recognize from the ground and from outer space because it has no central caldera and the surface is mostly flat. The volcano can usually be seen as a crack in the ground or on the ocean floor. Narrow fissures can be filled in with lava that hardens. As erosion removes its surroundings, the lava mass could stand above the surface as a dyke. The dykes that feed fissures reach the suface from depths of a few kilometers. Fissures are usually found in or along rifts and rift zones, such as Iceland and the Great Rift Valley in Africa.
 
In Iceland, volcanic vents are often long fissures parallel to the rift zone where lithospheric plates are diverging. Renewed eruptions generally occur from new parallel fractures offset by a few hundred to thousands of metres from the earlier fissures. This distribution of vents and voluminous eruptions of fluid basaltic lava usually build up a thick lava plateau rather than a single volcanic edifice. The Laki fissure system produced the biggest eruption on earth in historical times, in the form of a flood basalt, during the Eldgjá eruption A.D. 934, which released 19.6 km³ (4.7 mi³) of lava.
 
The radial fissure vents of Hawaiian volcanoes produce “curtains of fire” as lava fountains erupt along a portion of a fissure. These vents produce low ramparts of basaltic spatter on both sides of the fissure. More isolated lava fountains along the fissure produce crater rows of small spatter and cinder cones. The fragments that form a spatter cone are hot and plastic enough to weld together, while the fragments that form a cinder cone remain separate because of their lower temperature.
  -> See whole entry

Hornito (Spanish) = "Little oven".
Volcanic hornitos are small (usually a few meters high) rootless spatter cones that form on the surface of a (usually basaltic pahoehoe) lava flow. A hornito develops when lava is forced up through an opening in the cooled surface of a flow (a skylight) and then accumulates around the opening. Typically, hornitos are steep sided and form conspicuous pinnacles or stacks. They are "rootless" because they are fed by lava from the underlying flow instead of from a deeper magma conduit. -> See whole entry

Molten rock that is erupted to the surface.

Lava is the word for magma (molten rock) when it erupts onto the earth's surface. Geologists also use the word to describe the solidified deposits of lava flows and fragments hurled into the air by explosive eruptions (for example, lava bombs or blocks). Lava is from the Italian word for stream, which is derived from the verb lavare ("to wash"). -> See whole entry

Related keywords (7):

aa lava - lava flow - lava fountain - lava lake - pahoehoe - scoria - magma

A lava bench is a platform formed by new lava flows that extends the old shoreline; in particular, this can be observed on Hawaii at Kilauea volcano during times when lava is entering the ocean, forming new land.

In their young stadium, benches are highly unstable. They often are underlain only by loose material such as sand and wave-eroded rock. Young benches can collapse at any time, and it is life-threatening to stand on one. Only after a long time, when the pile of material under and in front of the bench is sufficiently stabilized, the bench can be considered new stable land. -> See whole entry

Erupted magma that is fluid enough to flow on the surface forming a lava flow.

Lava flows are almost self-explanatory. When magma is erupted in molten or a partially molten state it often has the ability to flow. This is typically the case for basaltic volcanoes such as Hawaii and Etna whose lavas are relatively fluid. Lava flows might form either as primary flows directly flowing out of a vent from the vent or by rapid aggregation of hot fluid spatter that fall back from lava fountains to form a flow.
The appearance of lava flows can vary greatly with chemistry, flow rate, strain rate, temperature, viscosity and other factors. The most simple division can be made between aa lava that usually has a blocky appearance, since the surface of the flow breaks into spiny or blocky pieces, and pahoehoe lava flows, which form a smooth surface and often produce spectacular ropy textures. -> See whole entry

Related keywords (5):

lava fountain - lava lake - lava - pahoehoe - skylight

Jets of fluid lava propelled into the air from an erupting vent, driven by expanding gasses.

Lava fountains are sustained jets of (usually very) fluid lava into the atmosphere. Lava fountains occur commonly on basaltic volcanoes such as Kilauea, or Etna.
The fountain gains its momentum by the expansion of gas bubbles that dissolve from the magma as pressure falls while it is rising in the conduit.
Heights, appearance, duration and erupted volumes of lava fountains can vary greatly. Strong fountains can reach several hundreds of meters. Lava fountains of Vesuvius in 1779 have even reached an estimated height of 3 km! -> See whole entry

Related keywords (3):

lava flow - lava - strombolian eruption

Pond of fluid lava accumulating from lava flows or directly above an erupting vent.