HOW DOES A VOLCANO FORM?


In February, 1943, in the middle of a cornfield in Mexico, people saw a rare and amazing thing taking place. A volcano was being born! In three months it had formed about 1,000 feet high. Two towns were destroyed and a wide area damaged by the falling ash and cinders.


Image of a Volcano eruption

What makes a volcano form? The temperature under the surface of the earth becomes higher and higher the deeper you go down. At a depth of about 20 miles, it is 🔥 hot to melt most rocks.

When rock melts, it expands and needs more space. In certain areas of the world 🌎, mountains are being uplifted. The pressure becomes less under these rising mountain ranges, and a reservoir of melted rock (called “magma”) may form under them.


Visual Representation of Volcano

This material rises along cracks formed by the uplift. When the pressure in the reservoir is greater than the roof of rock over it, it burst forth as volcano.

In eruption, hot🔥 gaseous liquid, or solid material is blown out. The material piles up around the opening , and a cone-shaped mound is formed. The ” crater” is the depression at the top of the cone where opening reaches the surface. The cone is the result of a volcano.

The material coming out of a volcano is mainly gaseous, but large quantities of ” lava” and solid particles that look like cinders and ash are also thrown out..

Actually, lava is magma that has been thrown up by volcano. When the magma comes near the surface, the temperature and the pressure drop, and a physical and a chemical change take place that changes the magma to lava

Comments

Leave a comment

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started