Wesley's+Report

A volcano is a crack in the earth’s crust. A crack in the earth forms into a volcanic cone when lava pours out of the crack and hardens. Very few volcanoes erupt with lava coming down their sides. Most volcanoes erupt with ash and lava going into the air and falling around the crack.

Volcanoes are most likely to be found near edges of plates. Plates are pieces of the earth’s crust that slowly move against each other. Volcanoes are formed there because magma has an easier way of coming out between the plates. Volcanoes like Mauna Loa in Hawaii are located in the middle of a plate. The crust there may be thinner than other places.

A volcano has three main parts, a volcanic form, the chimney, and the magma reservoir. An outer part of a volcano often looks like a cone shaped mountain. This is the volcanic form. A long tube inside the form is a chimney. One end of it is in the earth many miles deep. The other end is the volcanic opening. This is where an eruption occurs. Magma which is melted rock underneath the earth’s crust lies in a pool or reservoir. Under pressure, the magma climbs the chimney and comes out the chimney and spreads across the land. When the magma reaches the surface it is called lava. Lava that comes out of the volcano is super hot. It cools and hardens after a while. When lava comes out of a volcano it piles up forming even higher mountains. There is bowl shaped hole in the top of all volcanoes called a crater. The lava comes from the center of the crater.

Volcanoes can cause different hazards. The hot ash, gas, and lava can burn people and buildings. Some people have been buried by the hot lava and ash flowing from an erupting volcano. Lava rivers can also bury structures and roads nearby. People fear being buried by lava but lava usually flows slow enough so people can escape.

An eruption is caused by pressure. Magma pressure builds to cause an eruption. But the good news is that none erupt around here. It is not cool to see one erupt. When it erupts the damage is severe. If water gets mixed with some magma that is erupting it can lead to a deadlier eruption. If a volcano has a lot of magma, it can erupt for several days or weeks. If it does not have a lot of magma it may stop from time to time. After it has exploded the pressure can build while it is erupting. The state of an dormant volcano is that there is not enough magma and it does not erupt. The state of an extinct volcano is that there is not any magma in the volcano so it cannot erupt. The state of an active volcano is that there is magma so it will erupt from time to time.

As you can see a volcano starts as a crack in the earth’s crust. Later the lava starts to come out of the crack. It does harden very quickly. Once it hardens it becomes a volcanic cone. Volcanoes are natural disasters.