One of the strangest geographical occurrences on Earth are volcanoes.Although, once you understand them, they’re not strange at all. There are over 1,300 (potentially active) volcanoes in the world. Volcanic eruptions release lava, gas, and ash into the atmosphere making it extremely dangerous for residents around. Volcanoes cause around 500 fatalities in a year.
Simply put, volcanoes are a rupture in the Earth’s crust. They are found on tectonic plate margins. Land (continental) tectonic plates and oceanic tectonic plates collide and the oceanic plate melts down underneath the land tectonic plate, thus melting it. This causes an eruption through the surface which is called the destructive plate margin. In the constructive plate margin, the oceanic plate and continental plate move apart very slowly and over time the magma rises over the gaps created by plates moving away, causing the volcanic eruption.
There are two types of volcanoes, composite volcanoes, and shield volcanoes. Composite volcanoes are commonly found, and looks like your average triangle-shaped volcano. Magma builds at the bottom of these, and enters through the Earth’s mantle. These are found at destructive plate margins. Shield volcanoes look like hills, and typically are less violent than composite volcanoes. The shape of the shield volcanoes are made from running lava coming out of the crater. These types of volcanoes are found at constructive plate margins.
