Volcanic Landforms Shield Volcanoes Lava pours out of

Volcanic Landforms

• Shield Volcanoes • Lava pours out of vent and hardens on top of previous layers • Gradually building a wide, gently sloping mountain • Hawaiian Islands

• Cinder Cone Volcanoes • Lava has high viscosity, produce ash, cinders, and bombs • The material builds up around the vent in a steep, cone-shapes hill • Paricutin in Mexico

• Composite Volcanoes • Composite volcanoes are tall, cone-shaped mountains in which layers of lava alternate with layers of ash. • Mount Fuji in Japan and Mount St. Helens in Washington State

• Lava Plateaus high level areas of lava • Thin, runny lava travels far before cooling, again and again, taking millions of years to build up • Columbia Plateau, covering Washington, Oregon, and Idaho

• Calderas huge hole left by the collapse of a volcanic mountain • Eruption may empty the main vent and magma chamber and collapses

• Soils from Lava and Ash • Soil is very fertile • Volcanic ash breaks down, releasing potassium, phosphorus, and other substances that plants need • Volcanic soil can be the riches in the world, plants grow easily

Landforms from Magma • Volcanic Necks forms when magma hardens in a volcano’s pipes • Ship rock in New Mexico

• Dike magma that forces itself across rock layers hardens • Sills magma that squeezes between horizontal layers of rock

Sills magma that squeezes between horizontal layers of rock

Geothermal Activity • Geothermal activity, magma a few kilometers beneath Earth’s surface heats underground water. • Hot springs when underground water is heated by magma, an collects in a natural pool

• Geysers is fountain of water and steam that erupts from the ground • Old Faithful most famous geyser

• Geothermal Energy in volcanic areas, water heated by magma can provide an energy source • Can be used as a source of electricity, steam spins a wheel to turn the turbine to generate electricity.